Amjad Mahmood Bashir (Urdu: امجد محمود بشیر; born 17 September 1952) is a British politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament for the Yorkshire and the Humber region between 2014 and 2019.
He also stated that Bashir had an "inspiring story", and that "it's another sign that in this great country of ours you can come to Britain without very much and you can be a member of the European parliament, an MP, sit in the cabinet".
[9] Following his defection to the Conservatives, UKIP alleged that Bashir had failed to attend a meeting on 20 January 2015, three days prior to his defection, to discuss their concerns, pending an investigation, into what they described as "a number of extremely serious issues … which include unanswered financial and employment questions" and that "UKIP MEP Mike Hookem had passed on evidence of Mr Bashir's alleged wrongdoing to West Yorkshire police.
"[10][11] More specifically, they alleged interference in a UKIP Keighley candidate selection, immigration offences in his restaurants and financial irregularities with regard to expenses incurred by his European parliamentary political group at the time, the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy.
[20] After that, he co-authored and negotiated numerous follow-on Urgency Resolutions on Myanmar,[21] wrote articles,[22] addressed the EP plenary in the interest of launching a full debate in the presence of the (then) HR of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and VP of the European Commission Federica Mogherini,[23] hosted the largest ever event in the European Parliament on Myanmar featuring the participation of Sky News and MEPs of various other political parties (except the far right) and various diplomatic missions from South Asia [24] and co-organized a fact-finding mission with the help of the Conservative Party and the United Nations in the world's largest refugee camp in neighbouring Bangladesh (September 2017).
[26][27] On markets and market liberalisation reforms, he supported efforts toward cutting of red-tape, in particular for SMEs, addressed the challenge of "e-skills for Small Businesses",[28] shadowed the high-profile EU legislation on “EU-level scrutiny of Foreign Direct Investments” in strategic sectors targeting in particular investments from China and Russia and followed thoroughly and promoted the trade discussions between the EU and Pakistan (GSP+).
In making the case for economic liberalism he hosted the first so-called "1st Annual Economic Freedom Summit" (11-12/04/2018) on market reforms around the world with participation of MEPs from various political groups, liberal think tanks (such as the Fraser Institute), the IMF, business representatives, senior economists and government officials and diplomatic missions across the world [29] and also introduced the Austrian School of Economics through a discussion on "Banking & Monetary Policy from the Austrian Perspective" (22 November 2018) with the support of the Ludwig Von Mises Institute Europe and the Cobden Center,[30] organised a debate on "Liberalisation and Precariousness" (28 November 2017) inviting opposing views from the Institute for Employment Studies and Epicenter (two leading independent centres for research and evidence-based consultancy think-tanks) [31] and championed the option for enhanced equivalence as a win-win proposition in the debate on post-Brexit EU-UK Financial Services (28 February 2018).
[33] Bashir hosted, with the support from the Embassy of Pakistan, a "Pakistani Cultural Festival" (30 January 2018) in the most prestigious conference area of the European Parliament.