Ahmadiyya Watch » Ahmadis

Tory MP Imran Ahmad Khan found guilty of sexually assaulting boy, 15

Qasim Cheema — Fri, 15 Apr 2022 19:02:19 +0000

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.

Khan tried and failed to ban press reporting of the case, saying his life could be at risk were the case against him made public.

He argued that as an Ahmadi Muslim, the consumption of alcohol and homosexuality are strictly prohibited within his faith, and the reporting of those matters would expose him to “a risk to his safety both here and abroad”.

The court heard that Khan had plied the boy with gin and tonic before dragging him upstairs to watch pornography and groping him in a bunk bed.

Giving evidence, the victim’s parents both broke down in tears as they told how their son was left “inconsolable” and “shaking” after the incident at a house in Staffordshire.

Police were called to the house and the boy reported the incident, telling officers Khan had asked him to “show me some porn” and told him he was a “good-looking boy”, the jury was told.

The 15-year-old did not want to take it any further and the allegation was not pursued at the time, but the complainant went back to police when he found out Khan was standing as an MP in the 2019 general election.

Days before the poll, the complainant said he contacted the Conservative party press office to tell them what he claimed Khan had done to him.

“I explained this and said: ‘He sexually assaulted me when I was a child, when I was 15.’” He said the woman he spoke to sounded “shocked” and passed him on to someone else who sounded more “stern” and asked if he had any “proof”.

“I said ‘Yes, there’s a police report’, and she said ‘Well …’, and that was it.

“I said ‘I’m going to the police’, and she said, ‘Well, you do that.’”

A Conservative party HQ spokesperson said: “We have found no record of this complaint.”

Mary Creagh, the former Labour MP who lost her seat to Khan, told the Guardian she currently had no plans to win the seat back. A Labour party spokesperson said: “Imran Ahmad-Khan should immediately resign so a byelection can take place and the people of Wakefield can get the representation they deserve.”

Khan was suspended from the Conservatives in June 2021 after being charged with sexual assault, and has sat as an independent ever since.

Though he had previously denied being gay, he came out during the trial to defend himself against the allegations from the boy, as well as from two other men who gave corroborating evidence.

He claimed he only touched the Catholic teenager’s elbow when he “became extremely upset” after a conversation about his confused sexuality.

But the jury did not believe him. As well as hearing from the complainant, evidence was given by the boy’s older brother, then 18, who said Khan lifted his kilt, traditionally worn without underwear, at the same party and asked if he was a “true Scotsman”.

The jury also heard evidence from a third man, who said he was sexually assaulted in his sleep by Khan in Pakistan after a party where they were smoking marijuana and drinking whisky.

The man, who was then in his early 20s, told a jury Khan offered him a sleeping pill as they shared a room in a guesthouse in Peshawar, a city in the west of Pakistan. Khan was working on a project for the Foreign Office at the time.

The man said he later woke up to find Khan was performing a sex act on him, having pulled down his boxer shorts, adding: “I pushed him off and told him to stop and said something along the lines of, ‘What the fuck are you doing?’”

Khan’s QC, Gudrun Young, suggested the man’s perception was affected by the alcohol, cannabis and sleeping pill and that, despite being heterosexual, he had consented to sexual activity with Khan.

The man firmly rejected the suggestion. He told the court he had reported the incident to the British High Commission and the Foreign Office, but did not want to go to police in Pakistan because of Khan‘s “powerful connections” in the military and government.

He came forward as a witness after hearing Khan had been charged with sexual assault, the court heard.

If Khan is sentenced to less than a year in jail, he will probably face a recall petition. If 10% of eligible registered voters sign the petition the seat becomes officially “vacant” and a byelection is required. The recalled MP may stand as a candidate.

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Ministry lauded for summary on proposed minorities’ commission

Qasim Cheema — Wed, 06 May 2020 19:37:30 +0000

LAHORE : Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Senator Sirajul Haq and Majlis-e-Ahrar-e-Islam Secretary General Abdul Latif Khalid Cheema have expressed satisfaction that the whole nation displayed a unanimous rejection to the plan of inclusion of Qadiyanis in the proposed minorities’ commission.

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)

Ahraristan not Pakistan

Qasim Cheema — Wed, 17 May 2017 15:59:09 +0000

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

Yasir Latif Hamdani

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

Jinnah’s public pronouncement buried the issue for a time but it came back full force after his death in form of the Anti-Ahmaddiya movement started by Majlis-e-Ahrar in 1949. This led to the 1953 Martial Law in Lahore and the disturbances which led to the downfall of Pakistan’s constitutional order. In 1974 Zulfikar Ali Bhutto sought to resolve the issue by declaring Ahmadis Non-Muslim or so he thought. 43 years later we are still reeling from the horrendous misstep by the PPP government and it has taken a life of its own. It no longer concerns Ahmadis alone though they are the most notable victims, carrying body bags every few weeks.

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