Our London Correspondent
London
In a historic election victory, the Labour Party’s Sadiq Khan has defeated the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf’s Zach Goldsmith to become the first Muslim mayor of London.
Khan’s victory is being hailed on many fronts: he is from a working class background and is now going to manage one of the richest cities on the planet; he is an Asian, which is a comment on the diversity and inclusiveness that London offers, and he is a Muslim, which bears testament to the UK’s pluralism even in these times of Islamophobia.
Meanwhile, his opponent, Zac Goldsmith, was rich.
Analysts predict that the PTI candidate is going to accept gracefully and then going to blame Channel 4 for running the victory speech of Sadiq Khan before the results were announced.
Prior to the elections, PTI Chairman Imran Khan actively canvassed for his candidate and appealed to the Pakistani community members to vote for him, but to no avail.
“Imran Khan’s reliance on rich electables would have been thought of as a necessary evil if only they actually won their elections,” said Professor Fayaz Hassan, chairperson political science department at LUMS. “I think it is time to rethink strategy.”
