LAHORE: As is the case with Sadiq Khan, the incumbent Mayor of London, and former British Minister Sayeeda Warsi, one of the candidates for British Premiership, Sajid Javid’s father was also a bus driver in the British capital.
If Sajid succeeds, he will be Britain’s first non-white Prime Minister, as well as the first from a Muslim religious background, strengthening belief that a combination of resilience, perseverance and hard work does reap dividends for people doing jobs, otherwise deemed less prestigious, to climb ladders of fame, power and even wealth in a few cases.
Appointed to his current role as Home Secretary in April 2018, following the resignation of Amber Rudd, 49-year old Sajid Javid is a story of rags to riches to political power.
Sajid’s father, Abdul Ghani, had worked in a cotton mill and then drove a bus, earning him the nickname “Mr Night and Day” because he used to work round the clock.
On the other hand, Sajid Javid became the youngest vice-president, aged 25, at Chase Manhattan Bank.
According to various leading British media outlets, his reputation for success led him to be headhunted by Deutsche Bank where, as the head of credit trading, he earned £3million.
“The Times” of London writes: “Javid’s parents came to the UK from Pakistan rather than the Caribbean, but his quick climb from humble beginnings to adult success is a story shared by many children of the Windrush generation. Born in Rochdale in 1969, he grew up above a shop in Bristol with two bedrooms for a family of seven. His father was a bus driver who arrived in the 1960s with £1 in his pocket.”
As far as the 48-year old Sadiq Khan, the first-ever Muslim London Mayor, is concerned, he did not have a privileged start in life either.
The May 7, 2016 edition of the “BBC News” states: “Sadiq was one of eight children born to Pakistani immigrants, a bus driver and a seamstress, on a south London housing estate. From an early age, he showed a firm resolve to defy the odds in order to win success for himself and the causes important to him.”
Sadiq’s father Amanullah Khan had worked as a bus driver for 25 years on London roads.
Coming to the 48-year old member of the House of Lords, Sayeeda Warsi, she had served in Premier David Cameron’s cabinet first as Minister without portfolio and later as Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Office, until her resignation citing her disagreement with the Government's policy on the Israel-Gaza conflict in August 2014.
Sayeeda was the second of five daughters born to Pakistani immigrants from a place called Bewal, near Gujjar Khan on the Grand Trunk Road.
According to "The Independent," her father, Safdar Hussain, had started life in England as a mill worker and a bus driver, though today he is the owner of a bed manufacturing company, with a turnover of £2 million a year.
Be it Sajid Javid, Sadiq Khan or Sayeeda Warsi, they are all the children of post-war Pakistani immigrants who came to the United Kingdom in the 1960s in search of a better life.
And last but not least, the 84-year old British-Pakistani tycoon, Sir Mohammed Anwar Pervez, founded the famous “Bestway Group” many years after he had worked as a bus conductor.
According to the 2019 “Sunday Times Rich List UK, ”Anwar Pervez is the richest Pakistan-born Briton in the United Kingdom today with a net worth of £3.534 billion or US$4.6 billion.
He had moved from Gujjar Khan to the UK at the age of 21.
After having worked as a bus conductor for years, Anwar established his first convenience store in London during 1963.
By the early seventies, he had changed the company's name to Bestway and was operating 10 convenience stores in and around West London.
The company has since grown to a multibillion-pound enterprise, and as of 2014,[update] Messrs Bestway was the second largest independent wholesaler in Britain.
In 2012, his daughter Farah married Syed Abid Hussain Imam, the son of Pakistani politicians, Abida Hussain and Syed Fakhar Imam.
(References: Daily Express UK, the Financial Times London, the Sunday Times and the London Gazette etc)