About Sajjad Karim
Sajjad Haider Karim (born 11 July 1970) is a British politician. He served as a Member of the European Parliament for the North West England between 2004 and 2019. Karim was one of 10 members of the executive of European Movement UK and Chair of Conservative European Forum Trade. He is a solicitor by profession and was the Legal Affairs Spokesman for the Conservatives in the European Parliament 2009 - 2019. As well as having been a Spokesman to the WTO, he chaired the European Parliament's South Asia Trade Monitoring Committee; South Caucasus Delegation and was rotating chair of the Advisory Committee on the Conduct of Members. He also served as the vice-president of the European Parliament's Anti-Racism & Diversity Intergroup (ARDI) and as chair of its Working Group on Islamophobia. In 2014 Karim was the European Conservatives and Reformists candidate for President of the European Parliament. He developed experience in Trade related issues including being the Parliamentary Rapporteur for an EU-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA). In 2015, he was given the highest National Honour bestowed upon foreigners by Pakistan for his role in securing a British Government lead initiative delivering favourable market access for Pakistan to the EU, known as the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP+). Through Parliament, Karim delivered reforms which deliver exemptions for SMEs from regulation and new powers for national parliaments in EU decision-making. In 2019 he was named as Dodds Parliament Magazine winner of the International Trade Award. On 19 August 2020, Karim tweeted his concerns at the then Government's lack of commitment to human rights, which was misreported by some in the media. Karim was awarded an Honorary Doctorate for the University of Management and Technology in Lahore for his work in securing the GSP+ deal and for services to the British Pakistani community. In August 2014 he was awarded the Sitara-i-qaid-i-Azam, Pakistan's highest national honour to non-Pakistanis, for his services to strengthen Pakistan/UK and Pakistan/EU relations.
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