| Mohammad Asghar | |
| Honorific-Suffix: | MS |
| Office: | Member of the Senedd for South Wales East |
| Term Start: | 3 May 2007 |
| Term End: | 16 June 2020 |
| Predecessor: | Laura Anne Jones |
| Successor: | Laura Anne Jones |
| Birth Date: | 30 September 1945 |
| Birth Place: | Peshawar, North West Frontier Province, British India (now in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan) |
| Death Place: | Newport, Wales[1] |
| Party: | Welsh Conservatives |
| Otherparty: | Plaid Cymru (until 2009) Welsh Labour (mid 1990s) |
| Children: | Natasha Asghar |
| Website: | www.mohammadasghar.org.uk |
Mohammad Asghar (30 September 1945[2] – 16 June 2020), known as Oscar, was a Welsh politician who was a Member of the Senedd for South Wales East. He was a member of the Welsh Conservatives, and previously of Welsh Labour, and Plaid Cymru.
He came to prominence after being elected to the Welsh Assembly in 2007 as a member of Plaid Cymru on the list for South Wales East.[3] He was the first ethnic minority and Muslim Member of the Welsh Assembly,[4] as well as the first Assembly Member who was a member of a political party to defect to another party.[5]
Born in Peshawar (then in British India) to Aslam Khan and Zubaida Aslam, Asghar gained a BA from Peshawar University[2] before moving to Wales to complete a course in accountancy in Newport.
Asghar initially joined the Conservative Party, remaining a member for some two decades, later joining the Labour Party in the 1990s.[6] He joined Plaid Cymru some time after becoming Wales's first Muslim councillor, representing Victoria ward on Newport City Council.[7] He had stood for Plaid Cymru in general elections. His daughter Natasha Asghar also stood as a Plaid Cymru candidate in the 2007 Elections,[8] and also joined the Conservative party at the same time he did so.[9]
On 8 December 2009, Asghar became the first AM to cross the floor, defecting from Plaid Cymru to the Conservative Party. He claimed that he felt "out of tune" with Plaid policies, described himself as a royalist and unionist,[10] and stated that he felt like "a little parrot in a jungle".[11] Plaid Cymru called on Asghar to resign his seat following his defection.[10]
Issues were raised regarding two staff members remaining on permanent paid leave until the Welsh assembly was dissolved in 2011.[12] Asghar has gone on record as stating that MEP Jillian Evans's offer to give his daughter work experience was a significant factor in his decision to defect from the Labour party to Plaid Cymru.
In August 2010, Asghar was selected to stand for the Welsh Conservatives in the 2011 election.[13] In September 2010 David Fouweather, the Chair of the South-East Wales Area Council of the Welsh Conservatives, called for a full investigation into events that preceded the endorsement of Mohammad Asghar as a regional list candidate.[14] In a letter to the Chair of the Welsh Conservatives, Fouweather wrote:
Following his call for an investigation into Asghar's selection, Fouweather was asked by the Conservative Party to stand down as Chair of the South-East Wales Area Council.[15]
In December 2011, Asghar emailed fellow Conservatives asking them to support his wife in a vacant Newport City Council seat two days after the incumbent Les Knight had died. The email read:
One of the Conservative councillors who received the email said:
Asghar later apologised for the email, and confirmed that his wife would not be standing for election in the forthcoming elections.[16] [17]
In 2011, Asghar was involved in a dispute with members of the Jamia Mosque and Al-Noor Mosque, the two largest Sunni mosques in Newport, during which some members accused him of aggressively opposing the introduction of democratic elections for the mosques' leadership.[18] Asghar was subsequently issued with an ex parte court injunction, forbidding him from attending either mosque.[19] In December 2011, members of the two mosques applied to have the injunction extended. The injunction was instead lifted, when a Cardiff County Court judge instructed the two parties to come to a private agreement.[18] [20]
In January 2014 and 2015, Asghar was nominated for the Politician of the Year award at the British Muslim Awards.[21] [22]
He was a qualified pilot and spoke Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi fluently.[23]
Asghar married his wife, Firdaus, in 1983; they had one daughter Natasha Asghar.
He ran with the Olympic torch in 1964 and campaigned for Wales to have its own cricket team.
Asghar died on 16 June 2020 after being rushed to hospital earlier in the day.[24] His funeral took place in Newport Central Mosque on 25 June 2020.[25]