An SNP MSP is under fire for tabling a Holyrood tribute to a former party colleague who lied in court in a bid to swindle his wife after driving her to flee to a women’s refuge.
Fulton MacGregor has asked MSPs to “applaud” the late SNP councillor Dr Imtiaz Majid in a motion at the Scottish Parliament.
Mr MacGregor said Dr Majid, who was a North Lanarkshire councillor for five years, had contributed “to civic life in Scotland and as a community leader”.
However Dr Majid was denounced in a court judgment in 2016 which said he had lied and fabricated evidence in an attempt to cheat his wife out of a fair divorce settlement.
After 11 days of civil hearings at Airdrie Sheriff Court, he was found to have deliberately hidden his wealth and pretended to have lost a fortune through a gambling addiction.
He also kept his wife “continually short of money” and in a house which was “inadequately furnished and heated”.
Sheriff Morag Galbraith called parts of his evidence “ludicrous”, a “complete fabrication” and “entirely unacceptable and incredible” and ordered him to pay his wife £150,000.
The scam involved a bank transfer of £250,000 ostensibly in return for company shares and a house sale of almost £120,000.
Dr Majid later abandoned an appeal against the findings and was deselected by the SNP as a council candidate in 2017.
Despite widespread local publicity about the scandal, Mr MacGregor paid tribute to Dr Majid in a motion tabled at Holyrood on Monday titled “Celebrating the 36th anniversary of the Pakistan Welfare Trust and the life of Dr Imtiaz ‘Jimmy’ Majid.”
The Coatbridge & Chryston MSP said Dr Majid had served a president, general secretary and an executive member of the Trust, and warmly commended its work.
Mr MacGregor’s motion then notes Dr Majid’s recent death “with sadness” and “applauds Imtiaz's other contributions to civic life in Scotland and as a community leader, including as a local councillor for the Coatbridge South Ward between 2012 and 2017”.
The motion has so far been signed by 11 other SNP MSPs. If it receives enough cross-party support in the next six weeks it could in theory lead to a parliamentary debate.
Dr Majid was selected by local SNP members as the party’s general election candidate in Coatbridge, Chryston & Bellshill in 2015, but was later disqualified after failing vetting.
He was well known to Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond through his work for the Pakistan Welfare Trust.
Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Russell Findlay said: “This former SNP politician fabricated evidence and lied to a court in order to cheat his wife out of her rightful share of his vast fortune.
“It is extraordinary that the SNP are now seeking to posthumously celebrate this individual and even more so that they’re using a parliamentary debate to do so.
“What kind of message does this send to his former wife and other women who suffer such abuse?
“I would be stunned if this ill-conceived motion secured the required cross-party support.”
READ MORE: SNP deselects four councillors linked to North Lanarkshire's 'Monklands McMafia' turf war
Dr Majid died aged 57 in May, when Mr MacGregor said he felt “privileged to have known him and call him a friend”.
The MSP described him as “a gentle, bubbly, kind and caring person”.
However there was little sense of that in the 2016 judgment which followed Dr Majid bringing a divorce action against his wife Uzma, a mother of two.
Dr Majid wed his wife in an arranged marriage in Pakistan in December 2002 and she was granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK in February 2004.
When the marriage ran into trouble, Dr Majid swiftly and deliberately divested himself of capital assets in an effort to “defeat” his wife’s anticipated claim for financial support.
Within weeks of Mrs Majid first leaving her husband in September 2006 to go to “a women's refuge in London”, he sold his home to his brother Sarfraz for £119,500, and sold his shares in three family businesses to Sarfraz and his other brother Asif, apparently for £250,000.
Dr Majid also quit a family firm run by his father, Majid Properties, in which he had had a stake of around £120,000.
After a short reconciliation, the couple finally separated in April 2008.
When Dr Majid later instigated divorce proceedings, his wife sought a settlement of £500,000 plus £2000 a month.
Mrs Majid's lawyers argued her husband ought to have had around £369,500 from the house and share sales to his brothers.
But Dr Majid claimed to have gambled away most of his money - his side said he had just £700 left by 2008 and that Mrs Majid was "a woman interested in money".
Sheriff Galbraith cast doubt on Dr Majid’s claim to have lost a fortune through gambling, saying: “In my view the pursuer attempted to use that as a means to conceal his assets.”
She added: “The evidence from the pursuer and his brothers was far from acceptable”.
Mr MacGregor said: "This motion was laid to pay tribute for all that Dr Majid did for Scotland's Pakistani community, including playing a long term key role in the Pakistan Welfare Trust, an organisation which supports many vulnerable people with vital civic issues.
"Dr Majid, or Jimmy as he was known, was a champion for many important causes, including racial equality.
"I hope that with his recent passing this motion gives comfort to his grieving family that his contribution to Scottish society is recognised."
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