British Prime Minister Theresa May has appointed Pakistani-origin cabinet member Sajid Javid as the new home secretary of the United Kingdom.
Javid is the first-ever British Muslim and British Pakistani to get the post— the most important cabinet position after the prime minister's.
Earlier, Britain’s interior minister, Amber Rudd, resigned, after the government struggled to contain the fallout over the way it has treated some long-term Caribbean immigrants who have wrongly been labeled illegal immigrants.
Javid, a Member of Parliament for Bromsgrove, was the secretary of state for housing, communities and local government.
The announcement was made in a tweet from the PM Office.
Earlier, speculation was rife in the British media as to who would replace Rudd.
Reports had stated that Javid would be considered owing to his immigrant background.
Who is Sajid Javid?
Sajid Javid campaigned to remain in the European Union during the 2016 referendum, even though a few months before the vote he said his "heart" was for Brexit. After the result, he said:
"We're all Brexiteers now."
He was the first member of Britain's South Asian minority to be given a full-time post in the cabinet when he was appointed culture minister in 2014.
His father moved to Britain from Pakistan and worked as a bus driver in Bristol.
Before starting his career in politics, Javid worked for Chase Manhattan Bank and for Deutsche Bank, helping to build its business in emerging markets.
Javid cites the late Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher as his political inspiration and has often hung a portrait of her in his ministerial office.
In 2016, Javid supported the former work and pensions minister Stephen Crabb as a candidate to replace then-prime minister David Cameron as leader of the Conservative Party in return for a promise to be appointed finance minister.
Crabb's bid ultimately foundered when he failed to secure enough votes.
Javid is married to Laura and is a father of four.
Source: Geo News