MOHAMMAD Sarwar’s hopes of becoming Pakistan’s foreign secretary have been dashed.
The former Glasgow Labour MP had been tipped to take one of the top cabinet jobs in the new government following the election of Imran Khan as Prime Minister last month.
However, he has been sent back to his old job as governor of Punjab instead, just days after he was quoted in the Pakistan press saying he had no desire to do it again.
Sources close to Mr Sarwar, whose son is the Labour MSP Anas Sarwar, had previously talked up his prospects, saying he had the credentials to be a diplomat.
However it is understood Mr Khan, a former captain of the Pakistan cricket team before entering politics, dropped his plans to name him foreign secretary last week, and announced his return to Punjab on Friday.
Mr Sarwar tried to put a brave face on the snub, saying on Twitter that he was “grateful to Allah for the role of Governor Punjab”.
His son Anas also congratulated him on the appointment, tweeting: “I have no doubt he will lead with courage, determination, vision & principle. Change is coming…”
However one source close to the family said Mr Sarwar Sr was “very angry” at the outcome.
Mr Sarwar, 65, was the UK’s first Muslim MP, representing Govan and Glasgow Central from 1997 to 2010.
He was governor of Punjab, which has a population of 110m people, from 2013 to 2015 before standing down after criticising the government of then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Mr Sarwar is now aligned with Mr Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), which became the largest party in Pakistan’s national assembly in July’s election.
Born in Faisalbad, Mr Sarwar moved to Scotland in the early 1970s and became a millionaire by building a cash-and-carry business with his brother.
Famous for running a political machine in Glasgow, Mr Sarwar Sr returned to Scotland last year in a failed bid to secure his son the Scottish Labour leadership.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel