Sarwar first stood as a
Labour councillor for
Pollokshields East at the 1987
Glasgow City Council election, almost overturning a large
Conservative majority. In the 1992 election he won the ward. Sarwar was suspended from holding office within the Labour Party in 1997 when he was charged with electoral offences, but he was acquitted in 1999 and the suspension was lifted. He was re-elected in Glasgow Govan at the
2001 general election. The
2005 general election saw boundary changes in Scotland, so he stood at and won the new constituency of
Glasgow Central. He faced an opponent from the
far-right British National Party, with whom he refused to share a platform, and he persuaded other candidates to do the same. The
returning officer announced the result from a platform with no candidates, and Sarwar later made a speech from the floor of the hall. Sarwar became a member of the
Scottish Affairs Select Committee from 2004, and was chairman since 2005. In August 2006, he was a signatory to an open letter to then-
Prime Minister Tony Blair criticising UK foreign policy. Sarwar played a crucial role in bringing to justice the killers of fifteen-year-old Glasgow schoolboy,
Kriss Donald. The killers fled to
Pakistan, which has no extradition treaty with the
UK. Through his political connections, Sarwar was able to agree a one-off, no conditions attached, extradition treaty. They then faced trial and were convicted for the murder. On 21 June 2007, Sarwar announced he would not stand for re-election at the
2010 general election. His son,
Anas Sarwar, succeeded him as Labour MP for the
Glasgow Central seat until the election of 2015 when it was taken by
Alison Thewliss for the
SNP. In November 2008, Sarwar was one of 18 MPs who signed a Commons motion backing a Team GB football team at the 2012 Olympic Games, saying football "should not be any different from other competing sports and our young talent should be allowed to show their skills on the world stage". His nomination by outgoing Prime Minister,
Gordon Brown for a
life peerage in the
2010 Dissolution Honours was blocked by the
House of Lords Appointments Commission on the advice of
HM Revenue and Customs. In May 2021, shortly before the
2021 Scottish Parliament election, Scottish Pakistani voters received campaign messages on
WhatsApp, allegedly from Sarwar, urging them to vote for
Scottish Labour, led by his son,
Anas Sarwar. == Pakistani political career ==