A Labour councillor is facing questions after attending the wedding of his brother in Pakistan, who is wanted for drug dealing in Britain.
Birmingham City councillor Saqib Khan was pictured in the village of Dadyal in Pakistan–administered Kashmir on the day of his brother Fahan Khan’s wedding dinner.
The wedding took place in June 2023, according to social media posts – two years after Mr Khan was charged with conspiracy to supply crack cocaine and heroin and four years after he was first arrested by police.
It comes just months after the Small Heath representative was reprimanded for attempting to intimidate a fellow Labour councillor into voting in what would have been Birmingham’s first ever Muslim council leader in 2022.
Cllr Khan, who has just been reselected as a Labour candidate in the council’s elections next year, has confirmed he attended the celebrations – but claims he only became aware of his brother’s criminal past after it was reported in the press.
Fahan Khan, now 31, was arrested in July 2019 as he travelled out of Birmingham in a Volkswagen Golf full of cash and drugs that was stopped by police.
Mr Khan then fled the country and remained off the radar – until photographs of him emerged on social media in June 2023 on what appeared to be his wedding day in Dadyal.
The images, shared on June 7 that year and tagged with the village as their location, show both Mr Khan and his politician brother Cllr Khan in individual photographs.
Questions have been raised over Birmingham councillor Saqib Khan’s suitability for office after he was pictured at the wedding of his fugitive brother in Pakistan (right)
Cllr Khan was pictured at the wedding of his brother Fahan (centre) as was father Ayaz (left) in June 2023 – four years after his sibling had been arrested on suspicion of drugs offences
One post shows Mr Khan dressed in a suit next to his father, former Birmingham politician Ayaz Khan – who was found to have played a part in a huge vote rigging scandal in Birmingham in 2004 – and a man in a brown polo shirt.
‘Yesterday at Dadyal at Walima (the Arabic word for a Muslim wedding dinner) of dear friend from UK Farhan (sic) Khan along with his dad…Ayaz Khan former Councillor Birmingham City Council,’ said the poster, understood to be the man in the polo.
The Mail has been able to confirm that this post was made on June 7 2023 and has not been backdated.
The man in the polo shirt is then pictured with Cllr Khan, who is dressed in formal shalwar kameez and a blue vest, in a photo tagged on the same date.
‘Friends from UK…Saqib Khan, Councilor Birmingham City Council from Labour Party,’ the man had written.
That post, which had been liked by Cllr Khan, has since been deleted – but a screenshot was obtained and published by the Birmingham Dispatch, which first reported the story.
At the time of the wedding, Fahan Khan was – and remains – wanted by police in the UK.
After being stopped in a car full of drugs in 2019, he gave police his brother’s name as an alias. He then fled the country sometime later, and was charged in 2021 as part of a wider investigation into a drug ring in Birmingham.
Court records show he had fled to Pakistan by August 2021 and the court was told he could not attend because of the coronavirus pandemic.
But he failed to return home thereafter and was convicted in absentia at Aylesbury Crown Court of conspiracy to supply crack cocaine and heroin, for which he was sentenced to 51 months’ imprisonment.
Fahan Khan was convicted of conspiracy to supply crack cocaine and heroin in his absence last year after fleeing to Pakistan
Mr Khan will be jailed if he ever sets foot in the UK again. He was one of 20 people sentenced to a total of 65 years in prison for drugs offences in connection with the operation.
Detective Constable Laurie Twine, of Thames Valley Police, vowed last year to bring him to back to the UK.
‘This was the result of a lengthy investigation, and I am pleased that the defendant has finally been convicted despite his attempts to evade justice and deceive the courts,’ DC Twine said.
‘If he had not done so, and pleaded guilty at an early opportunity, he would likely have been released already. Instead, he is now unable to return to the UK without facing a lengthy period in prison and we will work with other countries to ensure that he faces justice.’
Sources within the Labour Party are concerned about the optics of re–selecting Cllr Khan for local election following the publication of the images.
A party source told the Mail: ‘He has abused his position, and is totally unfit for public office.’
Birmingham’s Conservatives group told the Mail said: ‘We understand his brother is on the run from the police, his father was convicted of corrupt and illegal practices connected to massive postal vote fraud and the Council has found Cllr Khan tried to intimidate a female Councillor.
‘Birmingham Labour have selected him to stand again. This is the type of person Birmingham Labour deem suitable to help run the council they bankrupted.
‘No wonder residents are desperate to kick Labour out next May.’
He was reselected via an opaque selection process earlier this year despite being found to have attempted to intimidate a fellow Labour politician into voting for Waseem Zafar, as Birmingham’s first ever Muslim council leader.
Birmingham City Council’s standards committee concluded he had sought to pressure Shabina Bano, who also represents the Small Heath ward, into supporting Cllr Zaffar in his failed bid to become leader in 2022.
Zaffar had previously stepped down from the council after he sought to pressure a school into allowing a four–year–old girl to wear a headscarf in school – without disclosing that the girl in question was a relative.
Ms Bano, a mother of five, had told the council she was the subject of misogynist bullying by an ‘inner cabal of Asian men’ who supported his ascension to leader.
She was visited by Cllr Khan and his father, and said the councillor told her she would be ‘rewarded immensely’ for her support, Birmingham Live reported.
Cllr Khan had denied all allegations but was found to have breached the council’s code of conduct.
He is also the son of former Birmingham City councillor Ayaz Khan, who was found guilty of corrupt and illegal practice by Electoral Commissioner Richard Mawrey QC following a massive postal fraud operation in 2004.
No criminal charges were brought, though Judge Mawrey said there was ‘evidence of electoral fraud that would disgrace a banana republic’.
Cllr Khan told the Daily Mail today he did not learn of his brother’s criminal history until last year and has not spoken to him since 2023
Councillor Saqib Khan told the Daily Mail today that he only became aware of his brother’s drug–dealing offences after they were reported last year.
‘I have always co–operated fully with the police in regard to my brother and have provided any information I have about his whereabouts to the police,’ he said.
‘I only became aware of the nature of the investigation into him and the crimes he was found guilty of from media reports in 2024 following his conviction.
‘I have not spoken to my brother since 2023.’
He did not respond to further questions on whether he asked for the post showing him at the wedding to be removed, or when exactly he spoke to the police.
The Labour Party and Thames Valley Police were contacted for comment.
