Pakistan(National Times)- LONDON: Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, has received the knighthood award from His Majesty King Charles III in recognition of his service to the capital. In a heart-warming statement following the investiture ceremony held on Tuesday at Buckingham Palace, Sir Sadiq reflected on his journey from a council estate in Tooting to becoming the first non-white, Muslim of Pakistani origin \u2014 Mayor of London and now a Knight of the Realm. \u201cThe London promise: if you work hard, and get a helping hand, you can achieve anything,\u201d said Sir Sadiq who spent his early days in Tooting, just seven miles southwest of Buckingham Palace, where the investiture ceremony was held. \u201cGrowing up on a council estate in Tooting, I never could have imagined that I\u2019d one day receive this great honour while serving as the Mayor of London.\u201d The 54-year-old son of Pakistani immigrants \u2014 his father a bus driver and his mother a seamstress \u2014 Sadiq\u2019s story has long been held up as a symbol of Britain\u2019s social mobility. Trained as a human rights lawyer, he entered politics, joining the Labour Party.\u00a0 He was first elected as a councillor in 1994 for London\u2019s Borough of Wandsworth. He served as councillor till 2006 just after he was elected as Labour member of Parliament for Tooting in 2005. Though he was very critical of then Prime Minister Tony Blair\u2019s policies specially the decision to invade Iraq but post Blair has risen through the ranks. He was appointed \u201cParlimentary under secretary of states for communities and local government\u201d and later became \u201cTransport Minister\u201d under Gordon Brown. He also served as shadow cabinet member under next Labour leader Ed Milliband. But the finest and proudest moment of his career was in 2016 when he was elected as Mayor of London. He made history not just as the first Muslim mayor of a major Western capital, but also for his relentless focus on inclusivity, social justice, and climate action.\u00a0 He was re-elected in 2021 and again in 2024 for an unprecedented third term, after he campaigned on making London \u201cfairer, safer, greener and more prosperous for everyone.\u201d \u201cThis is a truly humbling moment for myself and my family,\u201d he said of the knighthood. \u201cI hope it inspires others to believe in the incredible opportunities that our great capital offers.\u201d A practising Muslim, Sir Sadiq Khan is happily married to Saadiya Ahmed a solicitor since 1994 and has two daughters. In 2018 he was also conferred Sitara-e-Pakistan for his services to Pakistan by then President Mamnoon Hussain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pakistan(National Times)- LONDON: Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, has received the knighthood award from His Majesty King Charles III in recognition of his service to the capital. In a heart-warming statement following the investiture ceremony held on Tuesday at Buckingham Palace, Sir Sadiq reflected on his journey from a council estate in Tooting to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n