By Dan KollerPeople Newspapers

When the Highland Park Town Council met on the fourth Monday in March, Mayor Joel Williams had to take care of some routine business: calling a pair of public hearings, receiv-ing a couple of fi nancial reports, and congratulating the towns librarian on winning an award.

He did not have to deny that one of his initiatives was a con-spiracy designed to benefi t the president of Pakistan. But on the same night, about 100 miles to the northeast, one of Wil-liams neighbors did that very thing.

Arjumand Hashmi, who owns a house just three blocks from the Williams home, also owns property in Paris, Texas, where he has served as mayor for three years. Although Hash-mi also works full-time as a car-diologist at Paris Regional Med-ical Center, his wife and sons reside in Highland Park.

Hashmi accepted a job o er from the Paris hospital in 2005, months before he left his previ-ous position in Tampa, Fla. So his wife, Rizma, and the boys came to Texas before he did, to avoid moving halfway across the country in the middle of a school year. Seeking the best education Texas had to offer, they rented a house in Highland Park. By the time Dr. Hashmi was ready to move to Paris, his family was entrenched.

They loved it, Rizma said of her boys life in Highland Park. They said, We are not mov-ing.

So, the Hashmis came to an arrangement. Arjumand lives and works in Paris during the week, but sees his family in Highland Park on weekends.

If his name seems famil-iar, perhaps thats because hes made headlines for hosting his friend and patient Pervez Musharraf, Pakistans former president, at his homes in High-land Park and Paris. Its their re-lationship that led to the mayor

denying rumors about his plans for developing land around Par-is Lake Crook.

The president of Pakistan is buying the lake or coming to live in Paris, Texas: WRONG, Hashmi said as he narrated a PowerPoint presentation at that

March meeting. There is some sort of a secret plan being hid-den by the council: WRONG.

As you might expect, Hash-mi is one of the few natives of Pakistan if not the only one among Paris 25,000 residents. So he gets attention at Walmart, where people stop to ask if hes the mayor theyve heard so much about. But Hashmi, who goes by A.J. there, likes to joke about his unique status.

Its very unusual to have a Pakistani-born, Muslim, small-town mayor whos a Republi-can, he said. Most of them end up as Democrats.

The councils chambers were packed for that late March meeting, with the mayors Lake Crook presentation be-ing the main attraction; half of the crowd left after he was fi n-ished discussing it. But another hot-button topic on the agenda that evening was an ordinance

that banned smoking in hotels, restaurants, and other public places. One man drew laughs from the council and the crowd when he spoke against the ban.

Im not saying Im smart for smoking, he said to Hashmi before realizing whom he was addressing. Oh, Im sorry youre my doctor.

Hashmi practiced cardiology in Paris for fi ve years before he decided to run for o ce. He felt there was a disconnect between the council and its constituents, with the elected o cials too en-tangled in personal agendas to address important issues.

I was in an ideal position as a complete foreigner, he said. I didnt grow up in Par-is. I didnt go to school in Par-is. And I wasnt related to any-one in Paris. So my views were based entirely on merits rather than relationships.

Ralph Taylor, the pastor of Bethel Temple Church, was eat-ing breakfast at McKees, a diner with an ashtray on every table, the morning after the smoking ban was approved. The lifelong Paris resident has never met Hashmi, but hes read enough about to him know the mayor is on top of every issue.

He seems to be civic-mind-ed, Taylor said. Hes open; you can talk to him. He takes into consideration what you say, and if what you say is not better than what he thought, he stays with his own opinion.

Hashmi did not become may-or by a popular vote. Paris is one of the few Texas cities that chooses its mayor by a consen-sus of the council, rather than a poll of the people. But he was put into o ce by far more vot-ers than any of his colleagues (see chart), and no one opposed him when he was up for re-elec-tion a year ago.

The beauty of me getting elected is, however you com-plain about prejudice, the bot-tom line is that the average American doesnt think of it that way, Hashmi said in an interview at his Highland Park home, where photos of him with Musharraf, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama hang not far from pictures of his sons play-ing football for the Scots. My election is the perfect example of how broad-minded American people are.

Email dan.koller@peoplenewspapers.com

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Arjumand A.J. Hashmi won a 4-3 vote for Paris mayor among his City Council colleagues in 2011, when he was fi rst elected. In 2012 and 2013, no one else was nominated for the position.

H E D R E W F A R M O R E V O T E R S T O P O L L S

Each member of the Paris City Council has been through one contested election. Here are tallies of the votes they and their opponents received in their respective districts.

District Council Member For Against

District 1 Aaron Jenkins 36 27District 2 Billie Sue Lancaster 35 17

District 3 John Wright 61 34District 4 Richard Grossnickle 63 40 and 17

District 5 Matt Frierson 82 24District 6 Cleonne Holmes Drake 209 128

District 7 Arjumand Hashmi 416 289