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Date published: 30 December 2022
Asrar Ul-Haq has been awarded an OBE
Deputy Lieutenant to Greater Manchester and Rochdale resident Asrar Ul-Haq has been awarded an OBE in the King’s New Year’s Honours List.
Asrar has received the honour for services to the community in Greater Manchester.
Asrar was made a Deputy Lieutenant to Greater Manchester last year, who are appointed by the Lord-Lieutenant for their endeavours over many years working to enhance the fabric of Greater Manchester, recognising an individual’s contribution to local, county, or national life.
Having served as a police officer for 30 years, Asrar received numerous awards and commendations from High Court Judges, Magistrates and Chief Constables for his work. He received a national award for Innovation in Policing from the Home Secretary and later was the recipient of a national award for Inspirational Leadership.
He served in a range of departments including the CID and was the Inspector responsible for policing the City Centre of Manchester – regarded one of the busiest/challenging locations – and later served as a Detective Chief Inspector in the Prevention of Terrorism Unit, London.
Now retired, Asrar remains a consultant and a subject matter expert for the National Crime Agency and is a member of the Greater Manchester Advisory Committee to the Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chief Justice.. He was a member of the University of Manchester General Assembly and a non-executive director of a mutual housing organisation.
He facilitated the Natural Born Leaders programme delivered at local sixth form colleges to help people from underrepresented groups develop leadership skills and sat on a steering committee for Cancer Research UK.
Since retirement, he has also voluntarily worked in refugee camps in Greece following the crisis in the middle east where he supported many displaced people, including setting up outdoor cinemas for children in the evenings using old PowerPoint projectors.
Locally in Rochdale, Asrar, together with his family, run the Amaani Initiative: a project aimed at enhancing the local environment and making people more climate aware, with the aim of tackling climate change. He was recognised by the Royal Horticultural Society for his contributions and North West in Bloom for his work in the local community and Masjids in Bloom.
Asrar said: I am humbled at having been nominated and to have been awarded an OBE. I feel privledged that someone has taken the time to nominate me. At the same time I am excited as I hope this will provide a platform to enhance the work I do and create even greater opportunities for others.
"I am particularly pleased to have progressed my family project the Amaani Initiative during which my family have been gifting Olive trees to churches, mosques and other organisations on the understanding they plant an additional tree to combat climate change and enhance our local environment. We have now planted about 500 trees and encouraged mosques to donate trees to churches and then planting them together thereby creating multifaith cohesion. The project also has the added bonus of Buckley Hall prison creating some of the planters used by the mosques.
"We created Mosques in Bloom and later Churches in Bloom category to the In Bloom competition and work alongside Rochdale in Bloom to support them in securing the national gold awards for Rochdale. We have now been working with Springfield Park Bees to encourage mosques, the prison and Springhill Hospice to consider bee keeping and producing local honey and enhancing the local bee population."
Read more: Judges visit five Rochdale mosques for Masjids in Bloom initiativePublished: 04 August 2021
"I am also proud of the work I have been doing with the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme to increase the uptake of the scheme in Rochdale by securing licences for non traditional organisation to deliver the opportunity which will have a significant positive impact of young people in Rochdale.
"Amongst other work, I am pleased to have delivered the very first magistrates initiative to be delivered at the University of Manchester. This project will see undergraduates provided an opportunity to work alongside existing magistrates and navigate the application process to become magistrates by the time they graduate. This is the only scheme of its kind in the UK and possibly the world.
"I hope that being awarded the OBE will springboard me into delivering more projects for the benefit of others. two of these being:
"Raising funds to purchase a CT scanner to gift to a hospital so that it can be used to help families who have lost a loved one avoid the traumatic process of a post mortem. Currently deceased families pay approximately £800 per scan at a time when they are in distress and they have many other outgoings. The intention is that this service will be a free at point of need as the funds we raise will cover the costs (approx £1.5 million).
"I am also working to have a memorial dedicated to the soldiers that fought in support of Britain in WWI and WWII from south Asia erected in Rochdale. This was agreed by the council leader last year but is yet to be completed."
Read more: Queen's birthday honours for incredible local residentsPublished: 01 June 2022
The New Year’s Honours List consists of local residents recognised by King for their outstanding achievements across a range of services.
The honours list, published twice a year, consists of knights and dames, appointments to the Order of the British Empire and gallantry awards to servicemen and women, and civilians.
The ranks of appointment to the Order are Commander (CBE), Officer (OBE) and Member (MBE).
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