Fazlur Rahman

I knew Fazlur from the co-op party and from when he was a Forest ward councillor (his old ward, High Street I think, kicked him out and I helped him get a seat in Forest). For a year when I was planning chair he was vice chair, but I found him so difficult I persuaded Group Committee to give him another job.

We often had hour long phone conversations to talk about things like waste recycling. We were both members of the North London Waste Authority and I was often a member of the London Waste Regulation Authority. Fazlur was absolutely convinced that recycling was the way to go even though the projects he wanted to get going were clearly disastrous in economic terms. Nothing I said to him ever changed his mind or made him waver. This is not an uncommon experience (for me anyway) but Fazlur was particularly unperturbable. He knew what he wanted and was not going to let reality get in his way. Neil Gerrard called him the Zora Astrian, not because he was unaware that he was really a Moslem but because it was like he was on a different plane of reality.

Fazlur was the most conscientious councillor, always doing his surgeries and (I seem to remember) even doing an extra surgery of his own. When Forest ward was targeted by an Islamic infiltration, Fazlur had absolutely nothing to do with it (though he was a very enthusiastic Moslem).

I seem to recall being told he was a journalist in Pakistan or some such place but he never really mastered English, using key phrases (unless and until, was one he often used) rather than free flowing English. I believe he survived by running an export/import business (presumably to Pakistan and Bangladesh). At party meetings he would usually produce a report that was almost unreadable, filled with weird language and strange ideas. For an example of one of his reports hit this link. But (metaphorically speaking) his heart was in the right place and he was a natural gentleman. Physically it was a different story. He had a bypass (a quadruple, I think) seemed to have got better and then died on a council trip to Pakistan (I think). I am sure he was as unperturbable in the face of death as he was in the face of rationality.

After he died I heard some very serious allegations about him (This had nothing to do with being anti-gay. He was quite open about that.). I think I knew him as well as anyone on the council. I would say we were fairly close (considering the cultural problems). I never saw anything that would lead me to believe there was any substance in the allegations and I was close to him for many years.

1993/4?

Councillors with heart disease

CLLR M Fazlur Rahman of Forest ward holds his surgery on the first Saturday of the month, not every Saturday as stated in the Independent's Council Supplement (August 16). Times are 10am to noon at Leyton Leisure Lagoon.
Waltham Forest Independent September 6, 1996.

Fazlur pictured in July 1993.