London:
Pakistani-origin Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, the newly appointed chair of the ruling Conservative party, was on Thursday made a Minister without portfolio, the first Muslim woman to serve in a British Cabinet.
Thirty-nine-year-old Baroness Warsi is a leading campaigner for awareness and stronger legislation on issues like forced marriages, female genital mutilation and the chewing of Khat.
Warsi, born in Yorkshire town of Dewsbury, is an unelected member of the House of Lords. Warsi, daughter of a Pakistani bus driver, who went on to set up a bed manufacturing company, began legal practice some 15 years ago.
Tasked with keeping the various wings of the party united and combating criticism from Tory grassroots over what was seen as a flawed election campaign, which led to the hung Parliament, Baroness Warsi, will get a salary of 137,294 pounds per annum like all other ministers.
Only Prime Minister David Cameron will get 144,520 pounds per annum.
Warsi, who will be the first Muslim woman to sit in the UK Cabinet, has been politically involved from her early college days when she was elected as the Vice President of the Students Union at Dewsbury College.
She was a member of Cameron's shadow Cabinet, a former vice-Chairman of the Conservative Party and adviser to Michael Howard.
After qualifying as a solicitor, she worked for John Whitfield, the last conservative Member of Parliament for Dewsbury, at whitfield HallamGoodwall solicitors and then went on to set up her own specialist practice, George Warsi solicitors in Dewsbury.
Warsi has worked overseas on a research project for the Ministry of Law in Pakistan and is currently chair of the Savayra foundation, a women's empowerment charity based in Pakistan.
Thirty-nine-year-old Baroness Warsi is a leading campaigner for awareness and stronger legislation on issues like forced marriages, female genital mutilation and the chewing of Khat.
Warsi, born in Yorkshire town of Dewsbury, is an unelected member of the House of Lords. Warsi, daughter of a Pakistani bus driver, who went on to set up a bed manufacturing company, began legal practice some 15 years ago.
Tasked with keeping the various wings of the party united and combating criticism from Tory grassroots over what was seen as a flawed election campaign, which led to the hung Parliament, Baroness Warsi, will get a salary of 137,294 pounds per annum like all other ministers.
Only Prime Minister David Cameron will get 144,520 pounds per annum.
Warsi, who will be the first Muslim woman to sit in the UK Cabinet, has been politically involved from her early college days when she was elected as the Vice President of the Students Union at Dewsbury College.
She was a member of Cameron's shadow Cabinet, a former vice-Chairman of the Conservative Party and adviser to Michael Howard.
After qualifying as a solicitor, she worked for John Whitfield, the last conservative Member of Parliament for Dewsbury, at whitfield HallamGoodwall solicitors and then went on to set up her own specialist practice, George Warsi solicitors in Dewsbury.
Warsi has worked overseas on a research project for the Ministry of Law in Pakistan and is currently chair of the Savayra foundation, a women's empowerment charity based in Pakistan.
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