Two Pakistanis have been elected to senior leadership positions in Cambridge, a city in the US state of Massachusetts, in a development being seen as a milestone for Pakistani-American representation in local government.
Sumbul Siddiqui has been elected mayor of Cambridge for the 2026–27 term following a vote by the City Council. Siddiqui, a lawyer who originally hails from Karachi, will be serving her third term as mayor. She remains the first Muslim and Asian woman to hold the office in the city.
Siddiqui was first elected to the Cambridge City Council in 2017 and previously served two mayoral terms between 2020 and 2024, establishing her position within the city’s leadership structure.
Burhan Azim has been elected deputy mayor. An engineer trained at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Azim is originally from Burewala. His election makes him the youngest city councillor in Cambridge’s history.
The election of both officials has been described as a milestone for diversity and representation within US local governance, particularly for the Pakistani-American community.