EDINBURGH/ISLAMABAD: Hamza Yusuf, whose father was born in Mian Chanu in Pakistani Punjab, has been confirmed as the new Prime Minister of Scotland after a vote in the Scottish Parliament, JEE News reported. The SNP leader had the support of his own MSPs and the Scottish Greens, guaranteeing him a majority. All three opposition leaders stood against him but knew that he had no chance of success.
Youssef, who succeeds Nicola Sturgeon, is the country’s sixth First Minister and the first from an ethnic minority background. He is also the youngest First Minister at 37, and the first Muslim to lead a major UK party.
When Hamza Yusuf took his oath of allegiance in the Scottish Parliament in 2016, he wore a gold-embroidered sherwani, a traditional South Asian jacket – and a belt.
“I, Hamza Yusuf, swear by honesty and sincerity,” he said proudly in Urdu. “That I will always be loyal and give true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, so help me God.”
The victory of British-born Yusuf, whose family hails from Pakistan, is the latest reflection of how times have changed in leadership roles for people of South Asian descent in the British, Scottish and Irish parliaments.
Yusuf, 37, meets British Prime Minister Rishi Shankar, a Hindu, who won the role last October and whose Indian parents came to Britain from East Africa in the 1960s. And across the Irish Sea is Republic of Ireland Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, whose father is an Indian-born doctor.
Sunder Katwala, director of think tank British Future, called Yusuf a “history maker” in a post on Twitter. “The kingdom strikes back,” jellina Berlow Rahman, a human rights lawyer in Scotland, quipped on the social media platform. Historic moment for British politics.
Yusuf’s father was born in Mian Channu, Pakistan. His mother was also born in Nairobi, Kenya to a family of Punjabi descent. Both moved to Scotland in the 1960s.
