The wrath of Khan

By Paul Dale on Apr 4, 08 09:11 AM in

Ayoub Khan, the Liberal Democrat city councillor and holder of the local services cabinet portfolio, who was named and shamed in the Aston election court judgement, is facing a tough fight to save his political career.
Khan continues to protest his innocence, despite being found by Elections Commissioner Timothy Straker QC to have taken part in a "scurrilous" plot to implicate Aston Labour councillor Muhammed Afzal in a witness-nobbling attempt.
And as a barrister, Khan must realise the damage that Mr Straker's blistering denunciation could inflict.
Mr Straker noted that he could not state that Khan behaved "either creditably or honourably".
As for Saeed Aehmed, the former Lib Dem candiate for Aston, whose disability grant payments were described by Mr Straker as "dishonest", his political career must surely be at an end.

For Khan - an intelligent man and an energetic campaigner who has the ability to become one of the Lib Dem's most effective councillors - the election court result is little short of disastrous.
It is all very well for Khan to rail against the Elections Commissioner, describing his findings as unbelievable, and to huff and puff about a judicial review, but the damage to his reputation this close to the May 1 council elections is probably terminal.
Labour have won the past two Aston seats to be contested, by large majorities, and Khan is now looking highly vulnerable both to Labour and Respect.
But he has only himself to blame for backing Mr Aehmed, a man whose evidence in court was dismissed out of hand by Mr Straker. It would appear, and this is certainly Straker's version of events, that Khan's single-minded determination to inflict political damage on Coun Afzal clouded his judgement.
The witness-nobbling claim, which could have landed Afzal in prison if proved, was launched by Khan when in giving evidence to the court he stated that Afzal had approached relatives of his with a view to dissuading him, Ayoub Khan, from giving evidence.
What Khan couldn't have known, however, was that the pudding would be well and truly over-egged by Aehmed, who described a scene in which Afzal supposedly threatened "to do" Khan if he turned up in court.
The extremely serious implications of this led to Khan being recalled to the witness box, where he was obliged to state that he had no knowledge of any such threat being issued.
From that point onwards the Election Commissioner's findings were heading in one direction only,
To quote Mr Straker: "Plainly, such evidence if believed could have a profound effect on the view taken of Mr Afzal or, if disbelieved, on the evidence of Mr Khan. On the face of it, it is surprising that such allegations emerged in the way they did.
"Absent an explanation one would have supposed that such serious matters which include an attempt to pervert the course of justice would be drawn to the attention of the court at the earliest possible stage and reported to the police by a member of the bar, however junior."
Ouch, baby. Very ouch.

Comments (7)

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7 Comments

Hussain said:

You never add these comments anyway so i dont no know why i bother typing them!
I'm with Councillor Khan all the way, innocent man who is being dragged through the dirt by 'dirty politicians'!!I hope he shines through this may's election!!!!

April 4, 2008 12:29 PM

abdul aziz said:

i warned libdem leaders - hemming and tilsley- about the dirty duo khan and ahemed or ahmed or whatever his name is about 2 years ago. But the lib dem leaders did not listen to me because the duo fed them with lies about me and the libdems chucked me out of the party.
it's still time for libdems leaders to learn from their past mistakes and the only decent thing they can do is to make sure that these two never practice politics again. In fact don't even let them come near public life otherwise, bewarned, there will be more problems. Khan is already lying to the electorate through his teeth about me to save his wretched career!

April 6, 2008 1:00 AM

abdul aziz said:

Hello hussain,
you are i'm afraid flogging a dead horse. khan is nothing but a drowning man clutching at straws. i know him and aehmed well and their attitude about winning at all cost. dragged by dirty politicians you say? who? tilsley, hemming, aehmed? No, they only have themselves to blame for telling lies. thank God they chucked me out!
i believe they will perform every dirty trick to win the election to save their skins but mercifully it will be to no avail.

April 7, 2008 2:34 AM

Hussain said:

I have lived in Aston for 15 years and ever since councillor Khan got elected i have never felt safer in Aston. His got my support as well as the majority of aston locals! You Aziz are best explained as the titanic. You smacked into the iceburg and sank along time ago and have been buried into the ocean waters forever. The damage has been done and cannot be put together again! ouch...

April 7, 2008 4:32 PM

Nadime said:

Hussain?

Is this your real name or perhaps like the the "damned twins" you are being 'scurrilious and dishonest' A trick i gather learnt from the Ahmed or Aehmed brother..!!

Question for you, how is it possible you feel safe when there have been 5 shootings in the last 30 days.... yes 30 days you read correctly and 1 shooting just a few yards from where your hero councillor lives. Perhaps the 9million pound budget that he had, should have been used to fight gun crime and not fund his pursuit in owning as many properties as he can buy..!! oh yes we know.!!

Mr Hussain 15 years in Aston and still not learnt anything what a waste of life..!!

Lets not be nasty in how we portray candidates... a sunken ship you say in comparison to the titanic... well Mr hussain the titanic will rise again on the 1st May and as for your has beens well lets just say its a good job they have bought homes outside of aston.!!

April 8, 2008 1:09 PM

Hussain said:

lol Nadine i find you comical. Is Aziz absolutely sure which party he wants to stand with....labour...lib dems...respect party..or better still create his own 'the A team' because put all you guys together thats the support his got..5 people!!

April 9, 2008 10:40 AM

Nadime said:

Mr Hussain,

Deary deary me!!

You really are a lost cause are you not Mr Hussain. I believe that you are misinformed my lost little friend.

Mr Aziz would have happily stayed with the Lib Dems if it was not for your corrupt leaders namely Hemming, aehmed (has he changed his name back yet!!) and of course your hero Mr Khan. And if you ask Mr khan the majority of the Lib Dems would give there right arm to see Mr Aziz back and would be celebrating well into the early hours of the morning if Mr Khan was removed.

He only got his position as cabinet member because 2 yes 2 councillors from the Respect party made enough commotion to suggest that the torys and liberals were rascist in not electing an asian cabinet member. And lol and behold Mr Khan yet again enjoys the fruits of other peoples hard work..!! hero i think not perhaps zero is a more appropriate term.

Mr Hussain i wonder if you were paying attention to last years election results in Aston... I believe and correct me if i am wrong your strongest candidate Mr Aehmed came third!!!! Mr Aziz obtained well over 2000 votes. I think perhaps you need to go back to school or vote for the respect party so that they may improve education in the area because if you went to school in Aston and cannot decipher between 2000 and 5 i believe we are in serious trouble.

I am not a gambling man but i bet after the 1st of May you will also go into hiding just like your little buddies...!!

April 9, 2008 2:43 PM