Rehman Chishti

Chishti served as a Political Adviser from 1999–2007 to Benazir Bhutto, after she had ceased being the Prime Minister of Pakistan.[7] In September 2004 in a meeting in Islamabad with Mark Lyall Grant, the then High Commissioner to Pakistan, Chishti, acting on behalf of Benazir Bhutto, committed Bhutto to talks with the Government of Pakistan for the transition to Democracy with the United Kingdom acting as the facilitators. Chishti followed this up by attending every meeting Bhutto had with British diplomats, both in Dubai and London, including the British Foreign Office in London accompanying Ms Bhutto and acting on her behalf. This included meetings with the then British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw in 2005, and David Miliband in 2007. In 2001, in a note to Rehman Chishti in her biography, she described him as her most brilliant assistant.

At the 2005 general election, Chishti stood as the Labour Party candidate for the Horsham constituency.[13] He later joined the Conservative Party, and was selected as the candidate for the marginal seat of Gillingham and Rainham, whose predecessor seat of Gillingham had been held by Labour by less than 300 votes in 2005. On 28 August 2007, Benazir Bhutto visited the constituency for a dinner in support of Chishti's campaign, where she told the audience, "Rehman being the Parliamentary candidate for Gillingham is my loss and Gillingham's gain".[14]

Chishti represented the Gillingham North Ward from 2003–2007 and the Rainham Central Ward since 2007 on Medway Council.[15] He was appointed to the Medway Council's Cabinet in 2007 as the Member for Community Safety and Enforcement, becoming the youngest Cabinet Member in Medway's history.[16] He also served as an Adviser to Francis Maude (against whom Chishti had stood in Horsham in 2005) on diversity when Maude was Chairman of the Conservative Party in 2006.[17]

Chishti was elected Member of Parliament for Gillingham and Rainham in 2010 at the age of 31. The New Statesman listed Chishti as among the 20 MPs under 40 who are the best of their generation, and who have the potential to be the next Prime Minister.[18] The Telegraph newspaper described him as a rising star of the party.[19] In 2011, Chishti was listed by the BBC as one of the most frequent speakers in Parliament from the intake of 2010.[20]

In 2013, Chishti was named parliamentarian of the year by the road safety charity Brake for his work in Parliament championing road safety issues,[21] including persuading the government to adopt his private members bill to increase the sentence for those who cause death by driving, when then the motorist had been banned from driving at the time of the offence. The government agreed to increase the maximum custodial sentence to 10 years from the previous two.[22]

Chishti has campaigned for the release of Asia Bibi, a Christian mother of five who has been accused of blasphemy in Pakistan. In October 2014, Chishti authored a letter, signed by 54 MPs from across Parliament, sent to the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, and the Chief Justice, Nasir-ul-Mulk, calling for an urgent review of her case.[23]

In June 2015, Rehman authored letters signed by more than 120 MPs to the Prime Minister and to the BBC asking them to refer to the so-called "Islamic State", ISIS/ISIL as "Daesh", a phrase adopted by many countries around the World, including France and Turkey, an issue which made front-page news.[24][25] In December 2015, the Prime Minister announced in Parliament that, after the strong representations made by Chishti, the Government would be officially using the terminology Daesh, rather than ISIL.[26]

Chishti has campaigned to improve care for people with mental health problems and has introduced two Private Members Bills in Parliament. In October 2015 he authored a letter, signed by 67 MPs, sent to the Prime Minister asking the Government to support these.[27]

Chishti was a Member of the Justice Select Committee of the House of Commons, having previously been a Member of the Joint Committee of the Human Rights Committee.[28] He is passionate about sports and has served as the parliamentary fellow for Sport England,[29] and is currently the parliamentary fellow for the Football Association.[30]

In 2015, Chishti was awarded the Conservative Party People's Choice MP of the Year Award from the Patchwork Foundation for his community engagement work and was named in second place by readers of the ConservativeHome blog in their Parliamentarian of the Year 2015.[31]

Chishti was awarded the Grassroots Diplomat Initiative "Policy Driver Award" (MP of the Year 2015). Chishti was awarded the Asian Voice political and public life awards for campaigning MP of the Year (2015). Chishti was listed as the highest contributing Back Bench MP (BBC listing published 2016).

In July 2014, he was made Parliamentary Private Secretary to Nick Gibb, the Minister of State for Education. In May 2015, he took a similar position with Jeremy Wright, the Attorney General.

Chishti was a regular Sky News paper reviewer from 2010 to 2014. He appears regularly on Sky News, The Wright Stuff/Jeremy Vine Show, BBC and other national and international media.

He led the campaign to give Asia Bibi asylum in the UK and in November 2018 authored a letter signed by 125 parliamentarians from across the house calling on the Government to offer her asylum. He resigned his position as a Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party citing the failure of the Government to offer Asia Bibi asylum as one of the reasons, as well as disagreement over the European Union Withdrawal Agreement.[32]

In September 2019, he was appointed the Prime Minister's Envoy for Freedom of Religion and Belief.[33]

For the 2016 referendum on Britain's membership to the European Union, Chisti voted to Leave, having made it clear he had taken that decision after listening to his constituents who voted almost 65% in favour of Leave.[34]

Chishti has won a range of awards for his Parliamentary work including:

- Brake's Road Safety Parliamentarian of the Month (2013)

- Brake's Parliamentarian of the Year National Campaigner Award (2014)

- The Patchwork Foundation's Conservative Party People's Choice MP of the Year Award (2015)

- Conservative Home's Parliamentarian of the Year Award Runner-up (2015)

- Asian Voice Political and Public Life Campaigning MP of the Year Award (2016)

- Grassroot Diplomat's Initiative Policy Driver Award (2016)

- House Magazine's Campaigner of the Week (2018)

Perinatal Mental Illness (NHS Family Services) Bill – aimed to improve access to specialist services for the tens of thousands of women affected by perinatal mental illness every year.

Health Services Commissioning (Equality and Accountability) Bill – aimed to require health care commissioners to take full account of mental health needs when making decisions on care. This would require those who commission health services to always consider how their services meet the needs of people with mental health problems.

Drink Driving Bill – called for the Magistrates Court to be able to use their discretion to refer a third or subsequent offence for drink driving to the Crown Court for sentencing and to grant the Crown Court the jurisdiction to give a custodial sentence of up to two years. The road safety charity Brake presented Chishti with a national award for his Bill and campaigning on this issue.[35]

Laser Pens Bill – aimed to make the sale, ownership and use of certain portable laser devices unlawful in certain circumstances, and was also supported by the British Airline Pilots Association and a number of airports. Key aspects of Chishti's Bill were adopted by the Government in January 2018.[36]

Cats Bill – Chishti recently presented his Cats Bill to Parliament and launched a campaign calling for the compulsory microchipping and reporting of injured cats following a road accident. His Bill has the support of a wide range of animal charities including Cats Protection, the PDSA, the Blue Cross, Cats Matter, the Battersea Dog and Cat Home, and Animals Lost and Found in Kent. In December 2018, Chishti held a debate in Westminster Hall on Cat Welfare which was supported by MPs from across the House.[37]

In March 2016, Chishti became an adviser to the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, a role for which he was paid £200 an hour.[38] The King Faisal Centre is a Saudi Arabian think-tank, named after the Saudi King Faisal. In recent years the organisation has aimed to have more of an international presence and to "affect policy based on public research".[39] The Liberal Democrats criticised him for advancing Saudi Arabia's interests through making speeches in Parliament while at the same time being on the pay-roll of a Saudi think-tank.[40]

The parliamentary standards commissioner said in June 2016 that it would not investigate the complaint made by the Liberal Democrat MP.

On 13 September 2019, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson appointed Chishti the new Special Envoy on Freedom of Religion or Belief, succeeding Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon. Chishti assumes the role in a time of renewed focus on international religious freedom, with the United States Government under the leader of US Vice President Michael Pence and Secretary of State Michael Pompeo initiating the Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom.[41] Chishti is tasked with implementing the report recommendations for persecuted Christians by the Bishop of Truro.[42]