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Mohammed Sarwar, born in Faisalabad, Pakistan, seems on the surface an ideal candidate for the Scottish Labour Party.
A successful businessman with a rags-to-riches background, he is a role model for Asians disaffected by the political process. And crucially, he has been able to hold his own in a city like Glasgow, where party machinations and internal bickering have been rife.
But there have been some very bleak moments for the 46-year-old businessman-turned-politician, who was cleared by the high court only two years ago of attempting to pervert the course of justice. Thus, winning back his seat after three years of exile, imposed on him by his party, must seem especially sweet.
Sarwar came to Glasgow from Pakistan in 1978, and four years later, began his Labour career. In 1995, after three years as a councillor, he defeated then Labour MP Mike Watson in the now defunct Glasgow central constituency.
In that election, both men were accused of a too-liberal interpretation of rules concerning recruitment of party members in their bid to secure the nomination. Watson won the initial ballot by a vote, but a recount was ordered after Sarwar argued that 52 supporters had been improperly excluded.
Sarwar won the second vote, and his argument, by a comfortable margin.
In 1997, against a background of racist sloganeering, Sarwar won the seat with a majority of 2,914. And just weeks later, the debutant MP began to feel the heat, his problems sparked off at least in part by jealousies among Glasgow's other Asians.
"The b******* have got me," he was to tell the high court, later that year, while responding to charges of perverting the course of justice. It took two years before he managed to clear himself of the charge of paying £5,000 to a rival candidate -- the bribe supposedly given to get that candidate to swear out a false affidavit claiming conspiracy.
During the trial, Sarwar maintained that the £5,000 he had handed over was a loan given to a desperate man whose son was seriously ill and whose house was in danger of repossession. Sarwar argued that as a successful businessman, he felt morally obliged to help out.
Sarwar simultaneously faced charges of cooking up a scheme to fraudulently add names of voters to the electoral roll in his Glasgow Govan constituency. On the third day of hearings, however, two key witnesses said they could not identify him as the man who had called on them as a canvasser, and the charge was dropped.
Throughout the 1997 election, the Glasgow Govan constituency was tainted by accusations of violence, claims and counter-claims. Out of the 10 candidates who stood in the seat, at least three made no secret of their antipathy towards Sarwar. Out of that complicated backdrop came the first accusation that Sarwar had tried to bribe a rival to throw his campaign.
Since being cleared by the high court and now following his election victory, Britain's first Muslim MP is the first to admit he has been given a new lease of life. He now says his proudest achievement in parliament since 1997 is the successful public campaign that he led to win orders for Govan shipyard.
He says, "We lobbied cabinet ministers and campaigned across Scotland, gathering 80,000 signatures on a petition supporting the yard. The government listened and delivered vital work. We fought for Govan and won."
One of the first resolutions he tabled in the House of Commons was appropriately an Early Day Motion supporting a local Govan shipyard's bid to win new shipping contracts He has also played a major role in trying to link small, highly skilled technology companies with the giants of the defence procurement etsablishment in London.
In Glasgow, where despite strong efforts by the Scottish nationalists, he increased his majority from 2,914 to 6,400, a triumphant Sarwar is now poised to convert his marginal seat into a safe seat for Labour forever.
OTHER PROFILES Ashok Kumar Piara Khabra Parmjit Dhanda Khalid Mahmood Keith Vaz Marsha Singh
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