A Labour councillor has denied knowing that a man he met four times in Pakistan was an alleged international drug lord who has been wanted by British police for a decade.
Birmingham‘s Waseem Zaffar has denied knowing that Raja Arshad Billu Ghakhar had been a fugitive from justice since being arrested on suspicion of drug smuggling in the UK in 2014.
Cllr Zaffar – a former Justice of the Peace and a vocal supporter of Home Secretary and local MP Shabana Mahmood – met Billu on at least four occasions between 2019 and 2024 in Pakistan–administered Kashmir.
The alleged drug baron had fled Britain for Pakistan after the National Crime Agency swooped on him and Qaiser Khan in June 2014, ultimately leading to Khan being jailed for seven years after pleading guilty to smuggling class A drugs.
It comes just weeks after an ally of Cllr Zaffar was deselected from next year’s local elections after it emerged he had attended his brother’s wedding in Pakistan – while the sibling was wanted in Britain on drugs charges.
Investigators looking into Billu had suspected the pair of a drug smuggling operation that saw heroin worth £500,000 smuggled inside rice cookers from Pakistan to Birmingham.
Detectives had suspected Billu fled the country for Pakistan; he ultimately set up in the city of Mirpur in Kashmir.
In April, Kashmiri police swooped in to arrest him, and an older, bearded Billu was paraded in shackles before the press after being suspected of orchestrating an international operation worth millions.
He was one of 10 arrested by a crack police unit who had been surveilling the gang for months and seized 4kg of heroin, a huge cache of illegal weapons including rifles and shotguns, expensive cars and thousands of pounds in cash.
Labour councillor Waseem Zaffar (right) is facing questions after meeting with alleged drug lord Raja Arshad Billu Ghakhar (left) several times in recent years
The Daily Mail has verified that Zaffar met Billu at least four times since 2019, including at a wake in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir (pictured)
Cllr Zaffar is a rising star within Labour, seen here with Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood
Detectives claim some £22million of drugs were exported to Britain and Europe between 2015 and 2025, and that Billu had deposited some 60million rupees (£160,000) in a private bank account. They have informed Interpol and UK authorities.
During this time, Cllr Zaffar, a councillor since 2011 who was awarded an MBE for services to the voluntary sector, met Billu at least four times at social gatherings.
Pictures reviewed by the Mail show that the councillor met the alleged drug lord at a wake in 2019. He was then pictured sitting on a large throne at Billu’s house in Mirpur in June 2023.
Later that month, he would celebrate Eid with a group of people including Billu on a common in Thub Jagir, his ancestral hometown. A video showed Billu walking into the gathering as Cllr Zaffar embraced another man in greeting.
The party took place under armed guard: a man could be seen patrolling the edge of the grounds with an AK–47.
Cllr Zaffar met with Billu at the alleged gangster’s house again in July 2024 to discuss politics. They were pictured with Raja Naveed Akhtar Goga, the chairman of the Mirpur district council, in wide smiles.
Mr Goga has visited the Birmingham politician’s home in Britain, and has been pictured on social media with Billu many times over the years. There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing on his part.
Social media posts for both the Eid party and the July 2024 meeting explicitly named Cllr Zaffar and Billu as attendees by name.
But the politician has strongly insisted to the Daily Mail that he did not have a close or personal relationship with the alleged drug lord.
‘I have met this individual in Mirpur, Pakistan, but he is neither a friend nor a relative, and I have never hosted him,’ he said.
‘I had no knowledge or reason to suspect any criminal activity during those encounters.
‘I only became aware of his involvement in drug offences in recent months and I immediately informed the Police and Crime Stoppers of all relevant information.
‘I strongly condemn illegal drug activity and those involved in it.’
Cllr Zaffar (rear, in white) pictured at a social gathering celebrating Eid with Billu (front) in Kashmir in June 2023. He claims to have known nothing of Billu’s criminal allegations
The Eid gathering took place under armed guard: a sentry armed with what appears to be an AK-47 could be seen in one video patrolling the grounds
Cllr Zaffar met Billu in June 2023 at a social gathering, perched on a throne in what is believed to be the accused drug baron’s house in Mirpur
Billu pictured in a mugshot before he fled Britain. He escaped to Pakistan in 2014 after being arrested on suspicion of drug smuggling
Billu pictured in a brown robe in April this year after being arrested on suspicion of masterminding an international drug ring from his base in Kashmir
Labour sources have cast doubt on Cllr Zaffar’s denials, claiming that Billu had been known as a ‘gangster’ even before he had fled Britain.
One party source said: ‘Everyone knew who he was. Zaffar’s story is a load of rubbish. He is treating us all for fools.’
Cllr Zaffar is seen as a problematic rising star in Labour: he has been pictured with the likes of Ed Miliband and Sadiq Khan, and was a vocal supporter of Angela Rayner when she ran for the deputy leadership in 2020.
Insiders say he is angling to become the first ever Muslim leader of Birmingham City Council after failing to claim the top spot following the 2022 elections, despite the fact leading Labour figures have warned he is unfit for office.
The party has a stranglehold on the city council, which effectively declared itself bankrupt in 2023. It is still contending with an ongoing bin strike that has left the streets covered in rubbish and overrun with rats.
Cllr Zaffar also sits on the Aston Villa Safety Advisory Group, which last month banned Israeli fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv from attending over claims of holliganism.
It sparked a conflict of interest row after it emerged he had written in a local paper that he would be boycotting the match out of solidarity with Palestine, and was previously reprimanded for speaking out against ‘Zionists’ in Israel.
Cllr Zaffar is no stranger to controversy elsewhere: he found himself in a bigamy row after securing a sharia divorce from his first wife and marrying his second.
He wed teacher Ayesha Imdad in 2014 without being granted a divorce under English law from his first wife, Faraz Begum. Instead, he sought out a sharia divorce from a mosque operating from a terraced house in Aston.
The politician, who has branded himself a campaigner for gender equality, strongly denied being a bigamist, and the divorce was later completed under UK civil law.
The imam who granted the divorce later told the Mail: ‘Throughout the Muslim world, it is unanimously that way… if some Muslim man want to give the divorce to his wife, he can.’
Zaffar is seen in some Labour circles as a problematic rising star, having been pictured with the likes of Ed Miliband while battling a series of controversies
Waseem Zaffar pictured with Angela Rayner during her deputy leadership bid in 2020
Zaffar was awarded an MBE for services to charity in 2012, having run a youth anti-drug venture
The row comes just weeks after Birmingham councillor Saqib Khan (right) was deselected from next year’s elections after he was pictured at the wedding of his fugitive brother in Pakistan
In 2017, Zaffar made headlines again when he sought to pressure a Catholic school to let a four–year–old wear a veil – without disclosing that he was related to the child. The row led to him stepping down as cabinet member for transparency.
The same year, he sought to impose a gagging order on a constituent who claimed he misused charity funds and beat his wife – claims the politician has denied. He later dropped the case and was left with an estimated £100,000 legal bill.
A 2009 assessment of Cllr Zaffar’s potential for office, reported by The Times, concluded that he was ‘not a fit and proper person’.
It said: ‘Waseem has a reputation… If he is promoted by the party or seen to hold any position of responsibility within the party it will reflect very badly on the party and damage our standing in the community.’
The controversy comes weeks after one of his stablemates was deselected from next year’s elections after he attended his fugitive brother’s wedding in Pakistan.
Saqib Khan, an ally of Cllr Zaffar, was pictured in the village of Dadyal in Pakistan–administered Kashmir on the day of his brother Farhan Khan’s wedding dinner in June 2023.
This was two years after Farhan was charged with conspiracy to supply crack cocaine and heroin, and four years after he was first arrested by police in a Volkswagen Golf full of cash and drugs.
Cllr Khan had claimed he only became aware of his brother’s criminal past after it was reported in the press, but was dropped from next year’s candidates following a Labour Party investigation. Police are working to bring Farhan back to Britain.
He had been reselected despite being found to have attempted to intimidate a fellow Labour politician into voting for Cllr Zafar. Shabina Bano told council officials she was the subject of misogynist bullying by an ‘inner cabal of Asian men’ within the party.
Labour declined to comment.
