A leading campaigner against Islamophobia was branded “untruthful” in a sexual harassment case involving a charity he worked at.
A judge stated that Shaukat Sultan, who is listed as the general secretary of the Muslim Council of Scotland (MCoS), was not a credible witness when a colleague at the Roshni organisation was accused of mistreating a female staffer.
Sultan, who is also a local Scottish Labour office bearer, was said by the judge to have put pressure on the claimant by contacting her stepfather.
Roshni was set up to protect children and vulnerable adults from ethnic minority backgrounds from abuse, but the publicly-funded charity crashed to the ground after a scandal of its own in 2016.
It was eventually dissolved in 2017 after Roshni’s founder, Ali Khan, was ruled by an employment judge to have harassed a female colleague, who was described during proceedings as Miss C.
According to the judgement, Ali Khan’s actions included reducing the victim’s working days after she rejected his advances, threatening her with dismissal, verbal and physical abuse, making “sexually explicit remarks to her” and encouraging her to flirt with potential advertisers.
He was also found to have threatened to disclose intimate details of Miss C’s personal life to third parties and made threats of violence towards her family.
A tribunal ordered Roshni and Ali Khan to jointly pay Miss C £74,647, which included £35,000 for injury to feelings and £20,000 for personal injury, but she never received a penny as the directors quit within days of the remedy hearing.
However, the same case resulted in criticism of Sultan, who was described on the Roshni website as its “longest serving team member”. While Khan was found to have sexually harassed Miss C, Sultan was criticised for non-physical conduct.
Roshni’s then chair was ordered to issue an apology to Miss C for the treatment she received by Ali Khan and Sultan.
Following a remedy hearing, the judge wrote that the impact of the pair’s actions on the woman had been “considerable” and included feelings of hopelessness, inability to sleep, irritable bowel syndrome and alopecia.
The judge also noted that there had been a “complete failure” by Sultan to “take steps when he became aware of the claimant being in difficulty”.
After an expenses hearing, the judge summed part of the earlier ruling which related to the woman’s stepfather being contacted.
“We found that Shaukat Sultan was not credible when he told the Tribunal that he did not share with Mr Khan the reason why he had asked for the claimant’s stepfather’s telephone number.”
The judge wrote: “Shaukat Sultan, we have found, stated to the claimant’s stepfather that the contents of the defence were damaging for the claimant, and offered to send the defence papers to the claimant’s stepfather and suggested it would be better for the claimant if she settled the claim.”
“We found that Mr Sultan was seeking to have pressure placed on the claimant to withdraw the claim. Those were steps taken on behalf of the first respondent [Roshni].”
The judge added: “We also found that Shaukat Sultan had been untruthful in giving his evidence to the Employment Tribunal about the events of 11 May 2015.”
Roshni folded, but Sultan has since risen to become general secretary of the MCoS, which is an “accord” of Muslim associations, mosques and institutions north of the border.
Its website states: “It is a non-sectarian and non-partisan body working for the common good without interfering in, displacing or isolating any existing work in communities.”
Scottish Labour confirmed he is the treasurer of the local Labour party in Glasgow Southern.
Sultan has also played a role on the Holyrood cross party group on “Tackling Islamophobia", which is convened by Labour MSP Anas Sarwar. Sultan has been present at meetings the CPG has had with external organisations on diversity.
A spokesman for the CPG on Tackling Islamophobia said: “The Muslim Council of Scotland, as the umbrella body for Muslim groups in the country, is an important member of the CPG, working to end hatred and prejudice in Scotland. It is for the MCS to decide who it sends as its representative.”
Sultan said: "I have always acted honestly and openly. The charity was a special part of my life and I’m proud of the work it did. I’m completely committed to serving my community and that’s why I’m honoured to work voluntarily for the Muslim Council of Scotland, particularly at a time of rising Islamophobia."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel