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- Parliamentary Candidates

Qassim Afzal – PPC for Manchester Gorton

PPC for Manchester Gorton

About Me

Education:	University of Central Lancashire: International Business MA; University of Manchester: Unit TH250 BA/MA (pt); University of Manchester: Arabic (1st yr) BA (pt); Manchester Metropolitan University: Math's, Stats, Computing HND; University of Central Lan

Biography

Qassim Afzal was born in Manchester. Married with three young children, he is an international business entrepreneur, CEO of ABI Media Marketing Consultancy and often delivers research for government agencies. He is also a production consultant for, amongst differing companies, the BBC and Channel 4, and is also a Current-Affairs TV Presenter.

He was the first Liberal Democrat British Asian Councillor in Manchester. In 2005 Qassim was selected 6 weeks before the General Election in Gorton and achieved a historic 33.2% share of the vote and an 11.9% swing. He was congratulated by both the Leader and President of the Liberal Democrats. He was furthermore recognized in the press as a high profile British Muslim politician, reflecting a reputation as an experienced, effective and engaged UK Liberal Democrats politician and campaigner.

Qassim has been actively involved at the Liberal Democrat Party Conferences, researching, speaking and chairing on policy issues including: central government funding; civil liberties; equality and religious discrimination; India and Pakistan UN resolution; and anti-Iraq war consultation. Furthermore he was appointed by Shadow Education Secretary to chair the working policy group of parliamentarians and faith leaders on "Faith in Church of England schools". He amended the "Islam in the West" for the IRC and was the strategic policy adviser to the Northwest Development Agency. In addition to acting as a board member for the Ethnic Minority Business Forum he also represented the Liberal Democrats at the European Parliament and at the Amnesty International AGM challenging Labour and Conservative parliamentarians.

Furthermore Qassim was the guest speaker at the Liberal Democrat Youth & Students' AGM, and was a public speaker at several Iraq anti-war demonstrations. Additionally he was the LibDems spokesperson for the Pakistani Parliament and led several high level parliamentary and presidential delegations.