ASIAN NAMED IN BRITAIN'S PARTY FUNDING SCANDAL
London, December 10, 2007 (IANS)

Imran Khand, a Scotland-based Asian businessman, paid more than £300,000 to the ruling Labour Party through a front organisation, British newspapers reported Monday. Instead of disclosing the Scottish entrepreneur's identity, the party only declared that it received £312,000 from a group known as the Muslim Friends for Labour, the Daily Telegraph reported.

The group, an unincorporated association that does not disclose financial information, also donated £5,000 pounds to Harriet Harman's campaign for the deputy leadership of Labour Party. Other members of the group who donated money are Labour MP Mohammad Sarwar, who gave £4,000 and Maq Rasul, who ran a chain of DVD shops and donated £6,000 pounds, the paper said.

Several Asians, including steel baron Lakshmi Mittal, are said to have donated hundreds of thousands of pounds to the Labour Party. However, Imran Khand's case is different in that the donations were made anonymously. The Sunday Times said the donations are thought to be legal as the group was using the loophole of 'association' status. This has been recently changed so they now have to declare their donors.

David Davies, a prominent Conservative Party MP, Sunday called for an inquiry into the donations. "If virtually all the money from this group was actually coming from one person, then it is not transparent. We need a full investigation into who this person is, why he gave all this money and why his name was kept off the Electoral Commission register," he said.

Sarwar has now agreed to reveal the backers of Muslim Friends of Labour, which he heads. Imran Khand's company, Picsel Technologies, makes software that simplifies viewing content such as pdfs on mobile phones.