Pakistani American Receives the Key to Major US City
Report and pictures by Ras H. Siddiqui
The State of California stands today as the world’s fifth largest economy and what is surprising to many people around the globe is that the heart of the state does not reside in the Los Angeles or San Francisco areas. The capital of this “Golden State” is the City of Sacramento and it has a beautiful Capitol building to prove its case. This is where elected officials, the Governor, Senate and Assembly conduct their business, make laws and pass budgets, to name just a few tasks.
Sacramento city itself has a population of approximately 500,000 and just over two million people reside in the metropolitan area of which Sacramento is the largest city. So when an American Muslim of Pakistani origin receives the key to this city, it is significant. That is exactly what occurred on June 18th this year as Rashid Ahmad received this honor presented to him by the Mayor of Sacramento, Darrell Steinberg.
Rashid Sahib was born in Punjab during the turbulent year of The Great Divide (1947). His parents became refugees from East Punjab (India) and stayed in two or three different locations in West Punjab (Pakistan), till sometime in 1953 when his father set up a business in Shorkot, now known as Shorkot Cantonment in District Jhang. He grew up in and around Shorkot Junction with his maternal grandparents settling in Gogera Branch (GB) near the town of Gojra. He attended primary school in the nearby village, Chak No.327 GB, and high school in Chak No. 328. For his college education he attended West Pakistan Agricultural University Lyallpur in 1963 which was originally established by the British government as Punjab Agricultural College and Research Institute in 1906. It is now called University of Agriculture, Faisalabad (UAF). He attended this university for six years and graduated in Engineering in 1969.
Rashid arrived in the US in September 1970 to attend UC Davis and studied at this fine university till 1975, to complete two Master’s degrees. The rest as they say is history. He started working for the State of California as an Engineer at California Department of Water Resources, Division of Safety of Dams (DSOD) in 1975, and transferred to the Division of Engineering as a Supervising Engineer W.R. and later held many significant posts till his (second) retirement in the year 2017. But one can guess that this was not enough for him because his local community engagement efforts also continued in parallel.
He co-founded the Council on American Islamic Relations, Sacramento Valley (CAIR-SV) Chapter, was a member of the founding board of local Shifa Community Clinic, plus the Resources for Education and Community Health (REACH-together) and has been instrumental in many other groupings including the California Muslim Professionals. He also assisted in preparing the ground for the US-Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Agriculture and Food Security, especially in the building of a relationship between UC Davis and UAF his two Alma Mata’s. He was a Member of the Board of Capital Unity Council Sacramento, established by Darrell Steinberg after a string of hate crimes that took place in Sacramento in 1999.
Rashid Sahib lives with his wife Shaheen in nearby Elk Grove which (if one is lucky enough to be invited for a meal) can be a source of some of the best Lyallpuri cuisine in the region. Their four children are now married professionals. He also has one brother, Dr Bashir A. Azher, a urologist in Arizona.
Brother Rashid is no stranger to receiving major local awards either. In December, 2012 he received the CAIR-SV Lifetime Achievement Award presented at its annual banquet. In May, 2013 he was the recipient of the SALAM Distinguished Award for his many years of service to the local Muslim and Pakistani community. And now this key to the City of Sacramento caps long years of dedicated community service. Maybe it is now time that the Government of Pakistan recognizes him for many years of bridge building too!
While presenting the key to Rashid Sahib, Mayor Steinberg said he wanted to invite a “humble man” to join him at the podium and joked that Rashid should not have thought that he could get away without a thank you. The mayor said that he does not do this very often, maybe two or three times thus far during his tenure, but on behalf of the city of Sacramento for his many years of promoting interfaith understanding and dialog and for his positive impact in this city, a small token - Rashid, we would like to give you the key to the City of Sacramento!
Rashid Sahib appeared to be somewhat taken aback by this honor from the mayor and did not say too much beyond his profound thanks at the event. But in response to a congratulatory posting in the social media he wrote: “This was a complete and total surprise. I had no clue. This event was not about me, but a celebration and a moment of pride for our unsung heroes, who serve humanity day in and day out, away from the media light and off stage. It was about their hard work being recognized by our wonderful Mayor.”
One can believe that Rashid Ahmad was being too modest here as he said that many others in the area Muslim community are great examples of our contribution to Sacramento society and are represented in this recognition. He said that the Key to the City had a citation, the last line of which brought tears to his eyes: "Hold this key as a reminder that our doors are always open to OUR Muslim Community". This key is not just for me, it is for all of us, he added.
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