Party expels Khan, 48, who faces time in jail and could be disqualified as MP from his Wakefield constituency

The Conservative MP Imran Ahmad Khan has been found guilty of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy after plying him with gin at a party in 2008, with Labour calling on him to immediately resign his seat and trigger a byelection.

The 48-year-old, whose brother Karim is a prosecutor at the international criminal court in The Hague, was warned he may face time in jail. If he receives a sentence of more than 12 months he will automatically be disqualified from being an MP, prompting a byelection in his Wakefield constituency in West Yorkshire.

The judge, Mr Justice Baker, said he would sentence Khan at a date to be fixed.

On Monday evening the Conservatives announced he had been expelled from the party.

A jury at Southwark crown court in London found Khan guilty of assaulting the boy at a party in Staffordshire in January 2008, 11 years before he became an MP. Khan made no comment as he left court but a member of his legal team said he would be appealing.

The victim said he was not “taken very seriously” when he made the allegation to the Conservative party press office in December 2019, days before Khan was elected as Wakefield’s first Tory MP since 1932.

He made a complaint to police days after Khan helped Boris Johnson win a large Commons majority by taking seats including Wakefield in the so-called red wall that had formed Labour’s heartlands in the Midlands and northern England.

Written By: Rana Tanveer

Courtesy: Religion Observer

Imran Ahmad Khan (second from right), the Conservative MP for Wakefield, is on trial for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy in a bunk bed at a house in Staffordshire in January 2008. A separate alleged incident in Pakistan happened almost three years later, in November 2010.

Gay Ahmadi member of the UK Parliament Imran Ahmad Khan, who is on trial for sexually assaulting a 15 years old boy, faces another allegation of performing a sex act on a sleeping British aid worker in Peshawar, Pakistan, where they were working on a Foreign Office funded program in November 2010.

Testifying before the jury on Monday, the aid worker said he did it after giving him a sleeping pill as they shared a room in a guest house in the city of Peshawar. He said he later woke up to find Khan was performing a sex act on him, having pulled down his boxer shorts. He added: ‘I pushed him off and told him to stop and said something along the lines of, “What the f*** are you doing?”‘ The victim was in his early 20s on the time of the alleged incident.

He said he had reported the incident to the British High Commission and the Foreign Office but did not want to go to the police in Pakistan because of Khan’s ‘powerful connections’ in the military and government.

The alleged victim came forward as a witness after hearing Khan had been charged with sexual assault, the court heard. The man said that before the alleged incident: ‘There were definitely times when he got drunk after a few gin and tonics for example.’ He said Khan’s homosexuality was an ‘open secret’ and the MP would sometimes act ‘quite flirtatiously’ or ‘tickle’ him. Jurors heard that on the night of the alleged sexual assault Khan and the man had been at a party where everyone was drinking whisky.

Asked if he had been smoking marijuana, the witness said: “I think generally at these types of events, if it had been there, both Imran and I would have had some.” Khan’s counsel said her client did not like marijuana or the smell of it but the man said: “He has definitely smoked in front of me in the past.”

The MP, who is gay and an Ahmadi, claimed he only touched the Catholic teenager’s elbow when he ‘became extremely upset’ after a conversation about his confused sexuality.

The trial of Imran Ahmad Khan, 47, the Conservative MP for Wakefield, on charges of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy in 2008 in Staffordshire started March 21.

On December 16 last year, Khan appeared at the Old Bailey in London via video-link and the case was transferred to Southwark Crown Court where his trial was scheduled. The defendant, who is on unconditional bail, has been suspended by the Conservative Party and sits in the Commons as an independent.

After his elections, Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya UK had congratulated Khan. Its official Twitter handle – @AhmadiyyaUK – on December 13, 2019, said, “Congratulations, best wishes and prayers for success in building a peaceful world to @imranahmadkhan, on becoming Member of Parliament for Wakefield. Imran Ahmad-Khan is the first-ever member of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community elected as a Member of British Parliament.”

Khan’s father belonged to Khyber Pakhtunkhawa province of Pakistan and had moved to England. He denied the allegation “in the strongest terms”, saying “I am innocent” in a statement posted on Twitter. He was elected at the 2019 general election.

“[Fitna-e-Irtidaad aur Political Qalabaziyan, sic. “The Menace of Apostasy and the Political Somersaults,” second edition, p. 24]

Both leaders said whether the government would go ahead with its plans of proposed commission or not, the summary sent by the Ministry of Religious Affairs to the government advising against including Qadiyanis in it was another historic success of the nation created in the name of Islam and which had always held the belief of Khatm-e-Nabuwwat as dearer than their lives.

Senator Sirajul Haq rang up Abdul Latif Khalid Cheema on Saturday and discussed the prevailing situation with reference to the proposed minorities’ commission and the circumstances following the lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Sirajul Haq paid tributes to the historic role of the Majlis-e-Ahrar-e-Islam in protecting belief of Khatm-e-Nabuwwat and countering the conspiracies of Qadiyanis before and after the creation of Pakistan. He said Majlis-e-Ahrar had the distinction of being the torch-bearer in the struggle for upholding the belief of Khatm-e-Nabuwwat and its more than 10,000 workers laid down their lives to counter the conspiracies hatched to compromise this fundamental belief of Islam.

Abdul Latif Khalid Cheema said Qadiyanis were rebels of Islam as they tried hijacking the religion and they had challenged the writ of the state by never acknowledging themselves as minority as declared by the constitution.

He wondered why the state institutions were helpless against Qadiyanis who had been openly defying the constitution of Pakistan. He praised the role of the Ministry of Religious Affairs for sending a summary to the federal government advising against the inclusion of Qadiyanis in the proposed commission, and said Minister Noorul Haq Qadri effectively represented the religious sentiments of the nation.

Sirajul Haq reiterated that including Qadyanis in the commission would grant them rights on par with other minorities. The PTI government should have made Qadyanis accept themselves as a minority, he said. Mr Cheema expressed gratitude to Senator Sirajul Haq and other JI leaders, including Dr Farid Paracha, for raising this vitally important issue effectively.

Courtesy: The News (May 03, 2020)

Qasim Cheema from his twitter account tweeted that it has been our position for some time that the federal government must renegotiate its ruinous deal with the IMF.

He stated in a message through his twitter account that the given we are facing global pandemic government must renegotiate new terms with the IMF that takes into account impact of COVID-19 global economy.

Majlis e Ahrar procession in front of Qadiani Headquarters Chenab Nagar (Rabwah), Pakistan.

Secretary General of Majlis-e-Ahrar Abdul Latif Khalid Cheema is delivering a speech

The government must end the US coalition of war on terror since it had not only damaged the country on economic and foreign fronts but also caused severe damage to social fabric, national unity and harmony. They stated this while addressing the conference in connection with Eid Milad-un-Nabi celebrations jointly organised by Tehrik Tahaffuz Khatm-e-Nabuwwat (TTKN) and Majlis Ahrar Islam (MAI).

The conference was presided over by World Majlis Khatm-e-Nabuwwat naib ameer Khwaja Aziz Ahmad while noted speakers included TTKN naib ameer Hafiz Nasiruddin Khakwani, MAI naib ameer Prof Khalid Shabbir Ahmad, MAI naib ameer Syed Kafeel Bukhari, MAI secretary general Abdul Latif Khalid Cheema, Maulana Ismail Shujabadi, Maulana Ilyas Chinioti MPA, Qari Shabbir Usmani and others. The ailing and aged MAI central ameer Ata ul Muhaimin Bukhari participated in the conference and procession on an ambulance.

Workers of Majlis-e-Ahrar in Khatm-e-Nubuwwat Procession Rabwah.

I hate to keep repeating myself, but repeat myself I must so long as necessary. Majlis-e-Ahrar-e-Islam was a party founded in late 1920s. Its leading lights were people like Ataullah Shah Bukhari, Mazhar Ali Azhar and Daud Ghaznavi. Later these gentlemen were tasked by the Congress’ increasingly Machiavellian leadership under Gandhi and Nehru to divide the Muslim minority of the subcontinent along sectarian lines. Gandhi and Nehru felt that a united Muslim voice would pose political problems that would challenge their single party hegemony over the independence movement. Consequently Majlis-e-Ahrar started two major movements, at Congress’ behest. The first was the Madhe-Sahaba Movement against Shias in Lucknow with the express purpose of weakening the Muslim League. Then they initiated the anti-Ahmadi movement in Punjab by raising the issue of that sect’s right to identify as Muslim. Jinnah was wise to these machinations and swiftly ruled out any such sectarian division proclaiming that anyone who professes to be Muslim is welcome in the Muslim League be he Ahmadi or Shia or Mahdavi or what have you.

Ahrar rally Chanab Nagar Rabwah

On 7 September 1974 Pakistan for all practical purposes ceased to exist and the state became Ahraristan. Ahrarism is the de facto ideology of this state now. Its founding father is not the anglicised Shiite lawyer Mr Jinnah who would countenance no discrimination in the name of religion. It is not even Mr Bhutto who naively imagined he was doing the country a favour by resolving the Ahmadi issue. Nor is it General Zia who was perhaps Ahrar’s most effective tool in the country. The true founder of this country in the shape that it exists now is none other than Ataullah Shah Bokhari, the firebrand Congress cleric who had denounced Pakistan as Kafiristan and proudly proclaimed that he would not allow the Muslim League to even make the P in Pakistan.

He couldn’t stop the League in 1947 but his successors claimed the country as their own. They are the ultimate victors. Even liberals have to follow suit. Consequently you find professors from Stockholm and free-lance journalists from New Jersey hiding behind anti-Ahmaddiya propaganda to justify their often unsubstantiated attacks on Pakistan itself. In Pakistan you can abuse Pakistan, Jinnah and everything under the sun, so long as you also abuse Ahmadis. This is why a fraud like Agha Shorish Kashmiri is a respected literary figure in Pakistan.

People often speak about Saudi influence. Saudis have definitely been influential since the 1970s in Pakistan using their oil money to fund rabid clerics. However it is the cancer of Ahrarism that has seeped in so deep that has enabled Pakistan’s steady decline into the abyss. This comes with consequences. Consider the new piece of legislation introduced in the Senate, which calls for making fines and punishments for violation of Ehteram-e-Ramadan Ordinance (ERO) 1981. To begin with ERO is a gross violation not just of fundamental right of religious freedom but vitiates the very spirit of Islam, which is encapsulated in the clear injunction of the Holy Quran that “there is no compulsion in religion”. Yet it is quite a popular thing to trample on religious liberty of the citizens of Pakistan provided it is done in the name of Islam. Unfortunately there is no judge in all of Pakistan who has it in himself to strike down a blatantly unconstitutional and un-Islamic law like the ERO. Consequently Non-Muslims in Pakistan must silently suffer for the crime of being born in a Muslim majority country. They must reconcile themselves with the fact that politicians and the military alike will continue to use religion for their own ends and they will continue to live as, at best, second class citizens of this benighted country.

Syed Ata ul Muhaimin bukhari, president of Majlis-e-Ahrar-e-Islam Pakistan

Another manifestation of Ahrarism is the palpable anti-Shia feeling amongst the Sunni majority in the country. If Iran threatens Pakistan over border disputes or sectarian groups operating with impunity in Balochistan, Shias are expected to denounce Iran and prove their loyalty to Pakistan. The decision to allow an Ex-Army Chief to head up the predominantly Sunni alliance was also part of this sordid saga. Who do they think they were fooling when they claimed that it was a Pan-Islamic alliance and that Iran would be cajoled into joining it? Let us call a spade a spade. It is a Sunni alliance aimed at Shias and Pakistan, home to second largest Shia population in the world, has foolishly decided to join it. What a shame for a country whose founding father was a Shia.

Well such is the nature of international sectarian Muslim politics today. My advice to Pakistanis is that if you choose to continue to tread this perilous path, at the very least you can petition the government to change the name of the country to Ahraristan. That would be truly reflective of the reality of Pakistan today.

The writer is a practising lawyer. He blogs at hhtp://globallegalforum.blogspot.com and his twitter handle is @therealylh

Under clause 140 of Denmark’s penal code, anyone can be imprisoned or fined for publicly insulting or degrading religious doctrines or worship. Only four blasphemy prosecutions have ever been attempted in the country. The last was in 1971, when two Denmark Radio producers were acquitted after airing a song mocking Christianity. Two people were previously fined in 1946 after acting out a “baptism” at a ball in Copenhagen, while four others were sentenced for putting up anti-Semitic posters and leaflets in 1938. At least a dozen other cases have been considered but not charged, including in 2006 when prosecutors decided to stop an investigation into the Jyllands-Posten newspaper over a controversial set of caricatures under the headline “The Face of Mohamed”. The publication sparked protests around the world, with insulting the Prophet seen as a grave offence to Muslims and Islamic scholars interpreting Quran verses on idolatry to forbid any representation of Mohamed.
Courtesy: Independent