Sajjad Haider Karim (born 11 July 1970) is a British politician. He served as a
Member of the European Parliament
A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament.
When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...
for the
North West England
North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, administrative counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of ...
between 2004 and 2019.
Sajjad is one of 10 members of the executive of European Movement UK and Chair of Conservative European Forum Trade.
He is a solicitor by profession and has been the Legal Affairs Spokesman for the Conservatives in the European Parliament since 2009.
As well as having been a Spokesman to the WTO, Sajjad Chair's the European Parliament's South Asia Trade Monitoring Committee; South Caucasus Delegation and is rotating chair of the Advisory Committee on the Conduct of Members. He also serves as the vice-president of the European Parliament's Anti-Racism & Diversity Intergroup (ARDI)
and as chair of its Working Group on Islamophobia.
In 2014 Karim was the
European Conservatives and Reformists
The European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) is a soft Eurosceptic, anti- federalist political group of the European Parliament. The ECR is the parliamentary group of the European Conservatives and Reformists Party (ECR Party) European pol ...
candidate for President of the European Parliament. He has developed extensive experience in Trade related issues including being the Parliamentary Rapporteur for an EU-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA). In 2015, he was given the highest National Honour bestowed upon foreigners by Pakistan for his role in securing a British Government lead initiative delivering favourable market access for Pakistan to the EU, known as the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (
GSP+). Through Parliament, Karim has delivered reforms which deliver exemptions for SMEs from regulation and new powers for national parliaments in EU decision-making. In 2019 he was named as Dodds Parliament Magazine winner of the International Trade Award.
On 19 August 2020, Karim tweeted his concerns at the current Government's lack of commitment to human rights, which was misreported by some in the media.
Early life
Sajjad, a
British Pakistani
British Pakistanis ( ur, (Bratānia men maqīm pākstānī); also known as Pakistani British people or Pakistani Britons) are British people, citizens or residents of the United Kingdom whose ancestral roots lie in Pakistan. This includes ...
, was born in
Blackburn
Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the Ribble Valley, east of Preston and north-n ...
,
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly.
The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...
, on 11 July 1970. His family hails from
Mandi Bahauddin
Mandi Bahauddin (Urdu and pa, ) is a city in northern Punjab, Pakistan. It is also the capital of Mandi Bahauddin District. It is the 41st largest city of Pakistan by population according to the 2017 census. It has exellent agricultural land ...
,
Punjab
Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...
,
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
.
Karim attended Walter Street County Primary School Brierfield and thereafter Mansfield High School, Brierfield. He completed his A levels at
Nelson and Colne College
Nelson & Colne College is situated in the town of Nelson, Lancashire, North West of England, providing Further Education to Pendle and the surrounding districts. It is a tertiary college, offering courses to post-16 students, adult learners and ...
before studying law at university. He attended the College of Law in
Chester
Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...
, studying law. He qualified as a
solicitor
A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...
of the
Supreme Court of England and Wales in 1997 and rose to becoming an equity partner quickly, specialising in cases of serious fraud defence work.
His earliest political activity started with leafleting at the age of seven for the then Conservative parliamentary candidate for
Pendle Pendle may refer to:
* Borough of Pendle in Lancashire, England
** Pendle (UK Parliament constituency)
* Pendle Hill in Lancashire, England
** Forest of Pendle, hilly landscape surrounding the hill
* Pendle College of the University of Lancaster
* ...
. He later joined the
Liberal Democrats in 1989. Karim was elected a member of
Pendle Borough Council Pendle may refer to:
* Borough of Pendle in Lancashire, England
** Pendle (UK Parliament constituency)
* Pendle Hill in Lancashire, England
** Forest of Pendle, hilly landscape surrounding the hill
* Pendle College of the University of Lancaster ...
in 1994 and served until 2002 representing Brierfield ward.
Member of the European Parliament, 2004–2019
Karim was elected to represent North West England in 2004 as a Liberal Democrat. On 26 November 2007 he joined the Conservative Party and was re-elected to the European Parliament in June 2009. In May 2014 he was re-elected to serve a third term. Despite being top of the Conservative party list he was not re-elected in 2019.
He is interested in human rights issues, including
child labour
Child labour refers to the exploitation of children through any form of work that deprives children of their childhood, interferes with their ability to attend regular school, and is mentally, physically, socially and morally harmful. Such e ...
and the
civil liberties
Civil liberties are guarantees and freedoms that governments commit not to abridge, either by constitution, legislation, or judicial interpretation, without due process. Though the scope of the term differs between countries, civil liberties may ...
of EU citizens in
the War on Terror
The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), is an ongoing international counterterrorism military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks. The main targets of the campaign are militant ...
. He led the successful
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
contribution to the campaign for the commutation of the
death penalty
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
of British man,
Mirza Tahir Hussain
Mirza Tahir Hussain ( ur, مرزا طاہر حسین; born 1 June 1970) is a British man who spent 18 years on death row in Pakistan for the murder of a taxicab driver named Jamshed Khan in 1988. Following his conviction, Mirza was held in the Adi ...
, who had spent half of his life on death row in Pakistan, for a crime he maintains he did not commit.
Karim has spoken out on a number of key human rights issues and in particular, campaigns for self-determination for Kashmir. He has hosted a number of conferences in the European Parliament on the issue. In 2013 he brought together Syrian opposition groups to try encourage a co-hesive strategy to the current regime. He has also been active on the issue of democracy in Egypt and civil rights in Turkey.
On 26 November 2008, whilst visiting India as part of a European Parliament
Committee on International Trade The Committee on International Trade (INTA) is a committee of the European Parliament. Its current chair, elected on 10 July 2019, is Bernd Lange.Mumbai attacks
Terrorism in India, according to the Home Ministry, poses a significant threat to the people of India. Compared to other countries, India faces a wide range of terror groups. Terrorism found in India includes Islamic terrorism, separatist ...
in the lobby of the
Taj Mahal Palace & Tower
The Taj Mahal Palace is a heritage, five-star, luxury hotel in the Colaba area of Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, situated next to the Gateway of India. Built in the Saracenic Revival style, it opened in 1903 as the Taj Mahal Hotel and has histori ...
hotel. Speaking to the Associated Press while holed up in the hotel's restaurant shortly after the terrorists gained control of the hotel, Sajjad said "I was in the main lobby and there was all of a sudden a lot of firing outside...all of a sudden another gunmen appeared in front of us, carrying machine gun-type weapons. And he just started firing at us ... I just turned and ran in the opposite direction."
In December 2009, he was appointed as the Legal Affairs Spokesperson for the Conservative Group in the European Parliament. He was reappointed to this front bench position in June 2014 following the European Elections in May. As well as serving as a full member of the Legal Affairs Committee (JURI), Sajjad was previously a substitute member of the Industry, Research and Energy Committee and the Civil Liberties and the Justice and Home Affairs Committee. He also previously served as a member of the Delegation for relations with the Mashreq countries and on the Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean.
More recently as Legal Affairs Spokesperson, he has worked towards completing the Digital Single Market and Copyright Reform, which will have important and far-reaching benefits for international trade partners, consistently delivering time after time by enhancing the competitiveness of European businesses and facilitating international trade.
Karim has championed the role played by the EU in developing and facilitating international trade between the EU and the wider world, and has been involved in the development of the EU-India Free Trade Agreement within the European Parliament. He was the European Parliament's rapporteur on the free trade agreement with India and has authored two trade-related European Parliament Reports on EU-India Trade Relations and the EU-India FTA.
Both reports maintain the need for human rights to be integral in any trade related agreement that the EU has with another country.
Karim has spent a considerable amount of his time working towards a reduction in EU regulations and red tape on businesses, particularly SMEs. In October 2011 he was appointed as the European Parliament rapporteur on a new report that will look at improving the law-making process across the EU and reducing the legislative burden.
In July 2011, the
English Defence League
The English Defence League (EDL) is a far-right, Islamophobic organisation in the United Kingdom. A social movement and pressure group that employs street demonstrations as its main tactic, the EDL presents itself as a single-issue movement ...
staged an anti-Islamic protest outside his family home near Burnley, allegedly regarding new EU proposals on the labelling of halal meat. The group have targeted him despite not having much to do with either
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
or
British Bangladeshis
British Bangladeshis ( bn, বিলাতী বাংলাদেশী, Bilatī Bangladeshī) are people of Bangladeshi origin who have attained citizenship in the United Kingdom, through immigration and historical naturalisation. The term c ...
.
In February 2012, Karim was one of five MEPs to be appointed to a panel to police the new code of conduct rules that will govern the behaviour of MEPs. He is the only British MEP to serve on this committee. The Advisory Committee provides guidance to MEPs and advises the Parliament's president on what steps to take in the event of alleged breaches of the code. In February 2014 he was appointed chairman of the Advisory Committee by the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz.
After the European elections in 2014, he was selected as the European Conservative and Reformist Group Parliament Presidential candidate. The incumbent Martin Schultz retained his position as president, with Karim coming second out of four candidates, widely acknowledged that he secured support from MEPs right across the house beyond his own group.
Karim made headline news in December 2012 when he played an instrumental role in securing the return of six-year-old Atiya Anjum-Wilkinson to UK from Pakistan following abduction by her father. Over several weeks he worked closely with Greater Manchester Police and the Pakistani authorities and Atiya was returned safely to her mother during the Christmas holidays.
In December 2013, the European Parliament voted to approve a concessionary trade status for Pakistan, GSP+. The preferential trade package for Pakistan's exports to EU countries came into force in January 2014. He steered the International Trade Committee to approve the beneficial trade tariff.
From 2014 to 2019, Karim steered the European Parliament's relations with the South Caucasus as chair of the region's delegation, successfully contributing to the establishment of the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement with Armenia and its GSP+ trading regime. He has helped finalise the negotiations on a new comprehensive agreement with Azerbaijan and has been monitoring & guiding the implementation of the Association Agreement with Georgia, which includes a Deep & Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement component.
Karim has been appointed as the vice-chair of ARDI
and as chair of its Working group on Islamophobia. He has held multiple events within the European Parliament aimed at raising awareness of the issue of Islamophobia. In 2018, the European Parliament - as part of its 2019 election campaign - displayed a poster on the Simone Veil Agora, featuring a photo of an ordinary Muslim family, captioned with ‘We need to work together to challenge migration’. Sajjad who considered the poster islamophobic was the only MEP who personally wrote to President
Tajani challenging the poster, raising the issue in Plenary and eventually compelling the President to take down the poster.
Recognition
Karim was awarded an Honorary Doctorate for the University of Management and Technology in Lahore for his work in securing the GSP+ deal and for services to the British Pakistani community.
In August 2014 he was awarded the Sitara-i-qaid-i-Azam, Pakistan's highest national honour to non-Pakistanis, for his services to strengthen Pakistan/UK and Pakistan/EU relations. Sajjad was presented with the award in March 2015 by Pakistan President,
Mamnoon Hussain
Mamnoon Hussain ( ur, ; 22 December 1941 – 14 July 2021) was a Pakistani politician and industrialist who served as the 12th president of Pakistan from 2013 to 2018. He was first appointed Governor of Sindh in June 1999 by President Rafiq ...
, at a ceremony in Islamabad.
In January 2015, he was nominated for the Politician of the Year award at the
British Muslim Awards
The British Muslim Awards are an annual award ceremony that honours the success and achievements of British Muslim individuals, groups and businesses. It was established in 2013.
Overview
The British Muslim Awards was founded by Oceanic Consulti ...
.
In March 2019, Karim was the recipient of the International Trade Award at ''The Parliament Magazines annual
MEP Awards.
In November 2019 Azerbaijan recognised Karims role in furthering EU-Azerbaijan relations by awarding him the Medal of Independence on the occasion of Azerbaijan's 100 years of independence.
See also
*
List of British Pakistanis
The following is a list of notable British Pakistanis, namely notable citizens or residents of the United Kingdom whose ethnic origins lie in Pakistan:
Academia and education Humanities
* Sara Ahmed – professor of Race and Cultural Studies ...
References
External links
*
Sajjad Karim: profileon the European Parliament website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Karim, Sajjad Haider
1970 births
Living people
Conservative Party (UK) MEPs
People from Blackburn
Councillors in Lancashire
Alumni of London Guildhall University
British politicians of Pakistani descent
English Muslims
English people of Pakistani descent
Alumni of The University of Law
Survivors of the 2008 Mumbai attacks
Liberal Democrats (UK) MEPs
MEPs for England 2004–2009
MEPs for England 2009–2014
MEPs for England 2014–2019