Biography

Hashim Bhatti BA(Hons), MA, GDL, LPC, LLM

Early life & Education

Hashim was born and raised in Berkshire and was educated at Wellington College before attending various Universities. Hashim has a Masters in Economics, Politics, Philosophy and Law. Hashim also has a joint honours degree in Politics with International Relations and has completed the GDL/LPC.

In academia, Hashim achieved 3 distinctions and the highest mark in his cohort for a PPE module. His PPE dissertation was supervised by Baroness Haleh Afshar and focused on the power of foreign lobby groups in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. His undergraduate thesis looked at the partition of India & Pakistan and the effect on ideologies. Finally, his LLM thesis looked at what extent Competition law Articles 101,102 and 106 of TFEU applied to the NHS in the UK.

At University, he was an Ambassador for the Oxford University Tutorial College and Round Square International. He co-founded the Law Society on campus, took part in the Streetlaw Prisons project, sat on the staff/student committee and contributed to the PEP journal. At college, Hashim was the Deputy Head of House and House Prefect, spent several years in the Army section of the Combined Cadet Force (CCF), edited the fortnightly e-Wellingtonian magazine, organised socials to raise money for good causes and was a key member of the Model United Nations team.

Family background

Born into an entrepreneurial family, Hashim is the grandson of Abdul Khalique Bhatti, one of the co-founders of the highly successful Bestway Group. A K Bhatti is a well-known figure in the wholesale sector and is often seen as one of the pioneers of the cash and carry sector. Bestway is now one of the top ten largest privately owned businesses in the UK with a turnover of £3.4billion. Hashim’s grandfather was a postmen in his formative years and his father is a retailer. His parents arrived to the UK with limited resources and no formal education.

Life in the City & Corporate Law

Hashim currently has 3 years of experience working in the city for various corporate law firms. The bulk of his experience is in private equity and corporate finance. He was previously the Senior Corporate Paralegal at a leading “silver circle law firm” where he managed a team of 7 paralegals alongside his other existing commitments.

Outside of work, Hashim is an investor and an entrepreneur with a passion for helping young people and anyone who can help solve some of the world’s 10 biggest challenges established by the World Economic Forum.

Life in Local Government & Parliament

In May 2015, Hashim was elected as a Conservative Councillor for Clewer North in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead having ousted a sitting Independent after 20 years in power. He is the first British Pakistani in history to get selected by the party in Windsor for the local council elections and is one of the youngest to win. Hashim sits on more than 6 Executive panels which includes the Court of the University of Reading and the Radian Area Thames Panel.

He has previously worked as a political adviser and parliamentary researcher for an influential peer in Parliament where his work has included scrutinising the new Intellectual Property Bill. Hashim has written speeches on a range of issues from the war in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, the refugee crisis, issues in Burma to the UK’s relationship with the US, Malaysia, Turkey, Jordan and Pakistan.

Prior to this, he undertook several political internships, most notably, working at the Pakistan High Commission. He was also selected for the prestigious UN ParliaMentors programme at University where he was mentored by Anne Milton MP and was chosen out of more than 8,000 applications to do a traineeship within the Legal team at the European Parliament.

Hashim has also done work experience and shadowed various ministers in government. He was formerly the Area Chairman of Conservative Future in Berkshire and was mentored by Lynton Crosby AO (the Conservative party strategist for the 2015 elections).

He has been a delegate at the Y8 Summit, the Pakistan Future Leaders’ Conference, the National British-Pakistani Conference and has featured on the Pakistani channel Geo TV and the Bangladeshi TV channel NTV, on engaging young people in politics. Hashim has given speeches on the importance of leadership and interfaith dialogue at venues such as the prestigious Reform Club in front of influential figures.