Paying tribute to his colleague Mohammad Asghar MS, who passed away unexpectedly this week, North Wales MS Mark Isherwood described him as “a man of tolerance, compassion, inclusion” and said he would miss sitting next to him.
The Welsh Parliament paid tribute to the Welsh Conservative Senedd member for South Wales East, Mohammad Asghar, who died on Tuesday aged 74, during yesterday’s virtual Plenary Meeting.
Remembering his colleague and friend, Mr Isherwood said:
“As a devout Muslim, Oscar was a man of tolerance, compassion, inclusion. An example to people of all faiths and all beliefs, and we all know that because we all experienced that first-hand. He was quietly proud, as we heard, to have carried the Olympic torch, to be a multilingualist - and, even adding new languages, as we heard, in the last weeks of his life, to his vocabulary. He was quietly proud to have qualified as an Accountant, as a Pilot, to run a successful business, to help people in the community, to become a local and then a national politician.
“We've heard that he was also a proud Monarchist and Unionist, but he was also an internationalist. And I know, sitting next to him in the Chamber, that on his screen, if he wasn't watching or following BBC live Welsh or UK news, he was following Pakistani or Indian news or, more importantly, of course, the international cricket scores.
“I will miss sitting next to him, his hand on my arm every time he had something to say or wanted to raise a point quietly with me. I'll miss the mints that he used to pass to myself and Janet, on his other side. And I'll miss the ritual, at the close of every Plenary session, when he would ask me what engagements I had that night and, if we'd finished early, he would often try to attend those. If we finished late, he would always apologise and explain that he had to drive back to Newport and his family. So, my thoughts are with Firdaus and Natasha, but so are those of my wife, Hilary, who they know, and my family, including Charlotte, our daughter, who they know. At this time of dreadful loss it's hard to believe that a person with such a spark of life isn't with us any longer, but I know that spark hasn't gone out, it's just moved on. May Allah be with you all.”
