Pak-origin woman made party chief, cabinet minister

[niazikhan2]

LONDON: In a historic breakthrough for race relations and community cohesion, Britain got it’s first ever Pakistani-origin woman as a full cabinet minister in the new coalition government, led by British Prime Minister David Cameron.

In a double whammy for the most influential Muslim woman in British politics, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi was made the Conservative Party Chairperson and a full cabinet minister.

She will be the first Muslim ever to attend the cabinet meetings with other members of the ruling elite. She will have an office in 10 Downing Street as well as one in the Conservative Party headquarters. She took over charge of the party from the party chairman Erick Pickles, who has been made Communities and Local Government Secretary on Tuesday afternoon after Prime Minister David Cameron announced his cabinet consisting of his top lieutenants in a coalition government to lead the country for the next five years.

David Cameron struck a coalition deal with the third-placed leftist Liberal Democrats to work in a stable government for the interests and stability of the country but it is to be seen how the ideologically divided membership will react to the deal of expediency.

Lady Warsi in her new role will be responsible for the running of overall affairs of the party and will be a bridge between the parliamentary Conservative Party and the voluntary membership. In fact, shewill oversee the working and operations of the Tory headquarters and will be responsible for reporting the party affairs to the prime minister and vice versa.

Sadiq Khan, the Labour MP for Tooting and the transport minister in the last cabinet, attended the cabinet meeting under Gordon Brown’s administration but he was not given the full cabinet ministerial post and powers.

Warsi’s appointment is seen as a milestone in British politics and comes to show how far the race relations have progressed in Britain.

In 2007, the former solicitor became the first Muslim member of the shadow cabinet in what was seen as David Cameron’s radical push to change the party from its old image. Her appearance on BBC’s Question Time won Warsi plaudits for her outstanding performance as not only she defended her party’s policy and direction under the new leader David Cameron but she also put a strong defence of the British Muslim communities and took on racist leader Nick Griffin at one of her Question Time appearances.

Speaking to The News soon after the announcement of her new role, Sayeeda Warsi said: “I am much pleased. It’s a huge achievement for me as someone who is from a working class, of Muslim faith and of Pakistani background and for the Conservative Party.

“My appointment shows how progressive the Conservatives are under David Cameron and how much the party is serious in its efforts to create a united society, representing its various strands in a cohesive manner.”

Warsi, who will be the face of the Conservative party from now on, called her appointment a progressive and historic decision and vowed she will dedicate herself to make the Conservative message of change a success.

Warsi accompanied the Tory leader David Cameron during his last visit to Pakistan where they held talks with government and opposition figures and visited development projects.

“Britain has enjoyed warm relations with Pakistan and our government will ensure that our relations are further strengthened and they are more geared towards solving the issues that affect the people of both the countries,” Warsi said, adding Pakistan will be one of the key foreign policy priorities of the new government.

A glimpse of how the new government will deal with Pakistan came when the formation of a new US style National Security Council was announced by new Foreign Secretary William Hague.

The first meeting took place on Wednesday to discuss Afghanistan and Pakistan and review the current terrorist threat to Britain. It also discussed the ‘war on terror’ and the presence of British troops in Afghanistan.

The issue of Afghanistan and the pullout of British troops from Afghanistan has been completely absent in this election campaign. Liberal Democrats had run their election campaign on the anti-Iraq-war ticket in 2005 but they have been mum about the Afghan quagmire and its consequences for Britain.

On the contrary, this election’s campaign saw pledges from all parties to better equip and kit-up the troops in Afghanistan to continue fight against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

A conservative source has indicated that Cameron’s coalition government would depart from some security policies of the outgoing Labour government but it’s not clear what the new policy will look like, whether it will do away with the Labour policies or become more hawkish and more involved in foreign wars.

Campaigners are watching with interest as to how the new coalition will deal with the crucial issue of civil liberties and the Labour-created authoritarian and intrusive government.