LAHORE: In one of his first interactions with the media and people of Lahore after arriving in the city earlier in the day, the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, participated in a talk at Alhamra on Wednesday that was moderated by journalist Munizae Jehangir.

Later, Mr Sadiq was joined on stage by ‘surprise’ guest, Pakistani-American business tycoon Shahid Khan. The event began with a British-Pakistani poet reciting a poem about his Pakistani roots with a satire on being a ‘British-born confused desi’.

Mr Sadiq started off by thanking Pakistan and Pakistanis for continuing to send him love and appreciation since he became the mayor 18 months ago, adding that there was symbolism in his crossing over to Lahore through Wagah since his family did the same at the time of Partition. On being asked how Pakistani did he feel despite this not being his first trip to Pakistan, the mayor said he had family here and had brought his wife and children along, but he stressed he could assume multiple roles here – Londoner, British, Muslim, Pakistani, Asian, husband, father – all of whom were consistent with each other.

Talking about facing racism while growing up, he said, “London is the greatest city in the world, but it’s not perfect. When my parents first went to London, there used to be signs outside restaurants saying: ‘No Irish, no blacks, no dogs’. When I grew up, I suffered racism, name-calling, got into fights, learnt to defend myself... But now, my children are being raised in the same area as I was and they’ve not experienced the challenges that I did. That shows the progress we’ve made.”

He however said he was proud to claim he was “everybody’s mayor”. “I go to masjids, gurdwaras, churches, temples etc. And that was the vision Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah espoused too so it only makes sense for me to have those values.” He went on to explain his reason for travelling to Pakistan and India, which was promoting trade between the UK and these countries.

“We’re doing six cities in six days: Mumbai, Delhi, Amritsar, Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad. The key thing is to spread the message: London Is Open...”.

Mr Sadiq also admitted he was lobbying the government to change rules around immigration and introduce a new post-study work visa and make it easy for entrepreneurs to come to the UK.

The mayor was also asked if he believed he could play a role in bringing India and Pakistan together to which he diplomatically answered that he believed in people’s power to influence policies. He also added that terrorism could be dealt with by investing in policing, making sure public had confidence in police to report, “but the best antidote would be to continue to be united, practice values and liberties we had and make sure we don’t change who we are and go about our business like we do”.

Mr Sadiq was then taken back to the time he faced a hate campaign from his opponent, Zac Goldsmith, and asked if he’d be meeting Goldsmith’s former brother-in-law, Imran Khan. “We could attack him with a lot of things, but as Michelle Obama said, ‘when they go low, you go high’, and it’s how we’ve been raised. He may have used all the tools in the toolkit and even those that weren’t there, but the people of London rejected politics of fear and division.”

Published in Dawn, December 7th, 2017