Deputy Lord Mayor

Deputy Lord Mayor 2025-2026: Councillor Falak Ahmed

Councillor Falak Ahmed represents the Bingley West Ward, having been elected in May 2022. She has also served as an active Parish Councillor since 2019.

Falak was born and educated in Karachi, Pakistan. Following the completion of her postgraduate studies at the University of Karachi, where she obtained a master's degree in commerce, she began her professional career in the insurance sector before later working for several years in the Accounts and Finance Department of a multinational company. In 1998, she chose to step away from corporate life to focus on her family.

Growing up in Karachi presented many challenges, but these experiences helped shape Falak’s character and resilience in countless positive ways that continue to guide her life today. At a time when professional expectations for women were often limited by social conventions, being a career-focused woman was considered unconventional in many environments. Falak experienced these challenges firsthand and understood that she had to work harder, demonstrate greater diligence, and continually prove herself in the workplace. Looking back, she believes these experiences helped build the strength of character, determination, and resilience that became the foundation of her public and professional life.

Falak is happily married to Iftikhar Ahmed and is the proud mother of three adult children, all of whom are pursuing professional careers.

Falak remains committed to working tirelessly for the people she represents, ensuring their voices are heard and their concerns addressed. She is proud to serve on the Adoption Panel, contributing to important decisions affecting children and families, and also serves on the Corporate Overview & Scrutiny Committee and as a Reserve Member of the Health & Social Care Overview & Scrutiny Committee. In addition, her role on the West Yorkshire Combined Authority Governance & Audit Committee enables her to advocate for transparency, accountability, and strong governance across the region.

As a Parish Councillor, Falak has been involved in the Harden Village Emergency Plan and is frequently called upon to help resolve issues affecting residents across the ward.
She is particularly passionate about improving children’s services, promoting women’s safety and empowerment, and raising educational standards.

In her leisure time, Falak has travelled extensively for both business and pleasure, including visits to Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Sri Lanka. She has also travelled to Rwanda as a volunteer with the Umubano Project, where she was part of a British delegation selected to support and develop business skills among young local entrepreneurs.

Falak migrated to the United Kingdom in 2009 after living in the United Arab Emirates for more than a decade with her expatriate husband, where she devoted much of her time to raising her young family. During this period, she organised a range of sporting and recreational activities for her children, a commitment she continued after moving to the UK to support their development and wellbeing.

Falak speaks both English and Urdu. Her interests and hobbies include playing — and often winning — chess, watching cricket, whether international matches or supporting her own children, and making new friends. She also enjoys reading Urdu poetry, listening to classical music, watching dance performances, and relaxing with her morning newspaper and a good cup of tea.

Socially, Falak is deeply committed to promoting social cohesion and community integration. She maintains strong friendships across many different communities and regularly attends Mosques, Churches, Gurdwaras, and Temples during special occasions and celebrations. She also organises fundraising events in support of a variety of charitable and social causes, reflecting her strong belief in tolerance, inclusion, and public service.

Falak is teetotal, prefers tea to coffee, and loves white and yellow tulips. She follows a Halal diet where possible and otherwise prefers vegetarian or pescatarian options.

Her personal motto is: “One should live to serve others.”

Deputy Lord Mayor’s Consort, Iftikhar Ahmed, BA (hons) MBA

Iftikhar Ahmed (Ifti) is presently working as Management Consultant who assists SME’s with business turnaround strategies or new venture launches, both in this country and in the international arena. 

Before 2010, Ifti spent more than a decade working in Pakistan, and the Middle East in strategic positions in the financial services sector with some of the largest global multinational companies. Business planning, establishing management structures, controlling the whole gamut of marketing activities such as product launches, handling media and competitive strategies, as well as developing corporate training regimes to develop businesses have been Ifti’s area of speciality. 

In Pakistan, in the mid 1990’s Ifti was an integral part of introducing financial services to Pakistan under the umbrella of the then English conglomerate, Commercial Union which became a world-class company in Pakistan before moving to the United Arab Emirates in 1999 until late 2009 where he worked with English multinational companies initially and then with the largest composite Arab Insurer in the Middle East to help it re-engineer itself. 

From 1988 until 1996, Ifti worked in the UK in the financial services firstly as a leading business development professional and then very quickly moved into management with significant effect. To augment his graduate studies and to accelerate his career further, Ifti undertook study of MBA from University of Bradford that he completed in 1996 and from then on has worked in the international markets and since 2010 as a Management Consultant in the UK. 

Spending quality time with his three children is Ifti’s favourite pastime activity and aside from that, he has been a founding member of the social club, Pakistan Club that works to promote social cohesion in Bradford. Annually since 2011, large social events usually in March are organised by the Club with distinguished guests who have excelled as people of Pakistani heritage attending to mark the Pakistan Day. Before Pakistan Club, from mid 1980’s, 

Ifti was part of The Graduates Association that provided sporting opportunities to the youth in Bradford inner city areas. This was mainly through developing 2 cricket teams to compete in the local leagues and organising an indoor cricket tournament under the aegis of the Graduates Association. The Association cricket teams dominated in the leagues that they took part in with a lot of silverware to show for their efforts. Aside from cricket, the GA organised high visibility dinners and used this vehicle to raise monies for Marie Curie.