AS TITLES of autobiographies go, My Remarkable Journey doesn’t get many points for originality and even fewer for humility, but it has the redeeming quality of being true. Mohammad Sarwar’s journey from a small village in the Punjab, to a shop in Maryhill, cash-and-carry millionaire, Britain’s first Muslim MP and back to the Punjab as its governor, is indeed remarkable.

Sarwar adopts a thematic approach to his story and starts with the murder of Kriss Donald, the 15-year-old boy who was abducted in Pollokshields in 2004 by “a gang of five Asian men”. The abduction took place in his constituency and “bringing the murderers to justice was one of the most difficult challenges of my life – politically and emotionally”. This is Sarwar at his best as he strives to contain racial tensions in Glasgow and flies to Pakistan to argue for the extradition of gang members even though there was no treaty in place. The big story is fleshed out with anecdotes – the dignity and courage of Kriss’ mother, the gang denouncing each other, the fact that one of them was using the name Enrique Soprano – which augers well for the rest of the book.

From the Donald murder the story suddenly shifts to the Partition of India which forced his parents to flee. Sarwar’s grandmother died during the journey, but had previously handed his father a quilt with money sewn into it which was used to establish the family in Pakistan.

He was born in a village with no electricity and food that perished in the heat. But his upbringing had kismet: without the quilt money there would have been no move to Scotland and young Sarwar’s inability to find treatment for a dislocated shoulder foreshadowed his adult charity work setting up a hospital in the area.

Sarwar’s father travelled to Glasgow “where we had some kind of village connection” and he saw opportunity in the peripheral “deserts wi’ windaes” where the relative absence of shops made for fertile hawking. His son arrived later and was not immediately impressed by “dark and dank” Glasgow. But he too adapted: bricking up the inside of his shop in Maryhill to stop rats from eating the supplies, selling ever-increasing quantities of eggs and cheese and eventually starting his cash-and-carry business.

Sarwar’s political career began in Scotland but was inspired by developments in Pakistan, particularly his opposition to the execution of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He joined the Labour Party, won a seat on Glasgow Council and became Britain’s first Muslim MP in 1997. His nomination as a Labour candidate survived a dispute over rejected ballots which were mostly in his favour and his career as an MP was threatened at an early stage by accusations of electoral fraud. His story is a reminder of the way things used to be for the Labour Party in Scotland. During the nomination dispute (with Mike Watson), Sarwar claims that he was asked stand down by Jack McConnell who guaranteed him a seat in the new Scottish Parliament and by Donald Dewar who offered a place in the House of Lords. His supporters included George Galloway and journalist Jimmy Reid.

Sarwar is a man of many words and that eventually weighs his story down. Somewhere between the chapter on his political achievements in Glasgow and his expatiations on Israel, Kashmir and terrorism, the enigmatic man of the earlier chapters departs the stage. There is much to be admired in his opposition to Britain’s wars and his courage in opposing terrorism while linking it to British and American foreign policy. But the increasingly remote voice and longer-than-necessary extracts from his speeches destroy the delicate personal/political balance that was previously so engaging. The balance re-emerges to some extent in the final chapters on his charity work in Pakistan and his governorship of the Punjab which lasted only 18 months but required him to rescind his British citizenship.

Paradoxically, one ends the book wishing for a few more words. When he signs off, Sarwar is again involved in Pakistani politics working with Imran Khan and hoping that what he has “learned about the importance of structure and organisation in the politics of the British Labour Party can grow in a new and more powerful way on the soil of Pakistan”. Perhaps his old party’s structure will grow in Pakistan, but it’s withering here. The pages are teeming with Labour politicians who are no longer in a job while Nicola Sturgeon gets one paragraph. There’s a jocular reference to Alex Salmond and the referendum and no mention of Bashir Ahmad or Humza Yousaf even though the latter has cited Sarwar as an inspiration. If he has a view on political developments in the country where he first practised politics, Sarwar is keeping it to himself. More’s the pity.

My Remarkable Journey: The Autobiography of Britain’s First Muslim MP Mohammad Sarwar with Bob Wylie; Birlinn, £20