New Delhi: The United Kingdom’s House of Lords Conduct Committee published a report Tuesday on the conduct of former member Lord Nazir Ahmed, recommending that he be expelled from the House, and that his appeals against findings of the Commissioner for Standards be dismissed. The report will be presented to the House of Lords Thursday, 19 November.
Lord Nazir Ahmed retired from the House of Lords on 14 November, but the committee had decided before that to recommend his expulsion.
In 2019, Lord Nazir Ahmed was accused of exploiting his position to “pursue sex with vulnerable women who asked him for help”. It has been reported that in 2017, Tahira Zaman (43) approached Ahmed, hoping he would help her in getting the police to investigate a Muslim healer who she thought was a danger to women. Zaman told BBC that he repeatedly asked her to dinner and she finally agreed. Weeks after when she contacted him about the case, he asked her to come to his east London home.
The two had a consensual sexual relationship. However Zaman said: “I was looking for help and he took advantage of me. He abused his power.”
In another case, a woman who did not want to be identified told BBC Newsnight that when she had reached out to Lord Ahmed for help, he allegedly suggested that she should spend the night at his London home. She thought of this as a proposition for sex, which she refused.
Lord Ahmed has denied any wrongdoing. In a statement in 2019, he said: “I completely deny the allegation that I have exploited my position to pursue an inappropriate relationship with any member of the public (vulnerable or otherwise) or that I have acted inappropriately in the presence of women either in my personal or professional capacity.”
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Who is Nazir Ahmed
Ahmed, who was born in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, migrated to the United Kingdom as a child and became the first Muslim member of the House of Lords for life.
He has been a critic of the Indian government’s policies, especially on Jammu and Kashmir. When Article 370 was scrapped, Ahmed said India was an “occupation force” in J&K, which wanted to pursue “demographic changes to settle BJP/RSS extremists”.
In 2018, he also organised a protest outside the Indian High Commission in London, to say that minorities in India were not safe. He is also reportedly a supporter of Khalistani groups.
He was severely castigated by both Congress and BJP leaders for his tweet against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Lord Ahmed tweeted a Times of India article quoting BJP MP ‘Sadhvi’ Pragya Singh Thakur claiming that the opposition was resorting to sorcery on party leaders, many of whom had died in the last few years.
“Claims of sorcery, Jadoo , magic, witchcraft, on @BJP4India by opposition Jaitley, Gaur former CM of Madhya Pradesh, Shushma Swaraj , Atal Vajpayee , Manohar Parrikar CM Goa and Arun Jaitley … have all died in the last one year hey @narendramodi is next (sic),” Ahmed wrote on 26 August 2019.
The same year, he was charged with serious allegations of sexual assault on a boy under the age of 11 from 1971 to 1974.
Findings of the committee
The House of Lords Conduct Committee reached its conclusion on the basis of the incident between Ahmed and Zaman.
After an appeal by Ahmed, the House of Lords Conduct Committee upheld the findings of the House of Lords Commissioner for Standards. In her findings, the Commissioner noted that by sexually assaulting Zaman in 2017, Ahmed had breached the House of Lords Code by failing to act on his “personal honour”, and that by lying about his intentions and failing to further Zaman’s case, he had acted “without honesty or integrity”. Therefore, he was in breach of the Code.
The Commissioner further noted: “I find that Lord Ahmed exploited Ms Zaman emotionally and sexually even though he knew she was receiving treatment for anxiety and depression.”
The Commissioner also said Ahmed deliberately gave “inaccurate and misleading accounts to conceal his behaviour towards Ms Zaman”, and failed to “genuinely” co-operate with the investigation.
Based on this, the Conduct Committee dismissed Lord Ahmed’s appeal against the Commissioner’s, findings and also recommended that he be “expelled from the House”.
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