Rafiq Raja

Rafiq Raja was born in village Singla, Tehsil Kharian, District Gujrat and arrived in the UK in 1966 to join his father; Raja Mohammed Sharif, who had served in the British Indian Army in Burma from 1935 to 1943 and arrived in High Wycombe,UK in 1961. On arrival in Britain, Rafiq Raja went to Mill End County Secondary School, High Wycombe. In 1970 he moved to the Royal Grammar School, to do ‘A’ levels.

In October 1973 he joined the New School of Development Studies, at the University of East Anglia, in Norwich where he gained his BA (H) in Economics & Geography in 1976. After graduation Rafiq Raja, joined the Inland Revenue as an Executive Officer until 1985, the year he joined Messrs Grant Thornton and subsequently in 1988, Rafiq Raja joined Hacker Young, Chartered Accountants as a Tax Practitioner and is with them to date.

Rafiq Raja has always been interested in community service. He has been associated with the Race Equality Council and the Wycombe Labour party since the early 1980s. He has served on the executive committee of the REC for some 15 years and for one year as Vice Chairman. He was elected as Wycombe District Councillor in May 2003. He has been a school governor since 1984 and was elected chairman of the governing body for seven consecutive years from 1993 to 2000. Rafiq Raja is immensely proud of his contribution towards the development of a very successful school.

Rafiq Raja also contributed a weekly column to the local paper “Bucks Free Press” from 1995 to May 2003. It was first called ‘Asian View’ but was changed to the ‘Raja Report’. However, the pioneer in this case was his friend Raja Amir Dad Khan, who also joined him in presenting an Asian Language Programme in Urdu/Punjabi/English on a weekly basis on the local Radio 1170 AM, now Swan FM. He enjoyed interviewing successful people of Pakistani origin or visiting Pakistani politicians. He is also the Chairman of the Muslim Parents Association in High Wycombe.

Rafiq Raja intends to write about the issues facing Pakistan, the Muslim world and the developing countries aiming to improve understanding of Islam and the Pakistani community within the western world.

He has been to Pakistan on annual basis over the last few years and has seen many encouraging developments. He would like to see a democratic Pakistan, where there is rule of law, justice for everyone, minimal corruption and nepotism, with emphasis on rural development and in particular improvement of the education, agriculture and health sectors so that we can be proud to be associated with Pakistan.