Saera Khan

Saera Tithi Khan (born April 23, 1979 in Oslo) is a Bangladeshi-Norwegian politician for the Labour Party.

She was elected to the Norwegian Parliament from Oslo in 2005. She had previously served as a deputy representative during the term 2001–2005. She was the only member of the Storting of immigrant background, until October 2007 when Akhtar Chaudhry took another of the Oslo seats.

On the local level she was a member of Oslo city council from 1999 to 2005.

2008 psychic phone call controversy

Controversy erupted in late September 2008 when it was revealed that Khan had racked up extremely high phone bills using the mobile phone with which she was provided for free by the Parliament.cite news |first=Camilla |last=Ryste |title=Stortingsrepresentant hadde skyhøy mobilregning |url=http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/politikk/article2672196.ece |work=Aftenposten |date=2008-09-24 |accessdate=2008-10-09 ] . The president of the Storting, Thorbjørn Jagland, refused to pay these phone bills because of the extremely large amounts involved. First, Khan claimed that the reason for the high bills was that she had called her family abroad [cite news |agency=NTB |title=Må betale mobilregningene selv |url=http://www.dagbladet.no/nyheter/2008/09/24/547952.html |work=Dagbladet |date=2008-09-24 |accessdate=2008-10-09 ] . Later, she claimed that she had a boyfriend who was a special operations soldier, and that the phone bills originated from satellite telephone calls to this boyfriend [cite news |first=Pål |last=Nordseth |title=Kjæresten er spesialsoldat i utlandet |url=http://www.kjendis.no/2008/10/05/549194.html |work=Dagbladet |date=2008-10-05 |accessdate=2008-10-09 ] , triggering an investigation by the Norwegian Army due to the fact that Norwegian soldiers are not allowed to receive private satellite calls while on duty. The result of this investigation was that the Army denied that Khan's boyfriend was a Norwegian soldier, upon which Khan told media that her boyfriend was attached to the British ISAF force [cite news |first=Joakim |last=Thorkilsen |title=– Kjæresten finnes ikke |url=http://www.kjendis.no/2008/10/08/549612.html |work=Dagbladet |date=2008-10-08 |accessdate=2008-10-09 ] , and that his identity could not be disclosed for security reasons [cite news |first=Mads A. |last=Andersen |coauthors=Sun Iren Bjørnås |title=Saera Khan om soldatkjæresten: – Han er i det britiske forsvaret |url=http://www.vg.no/nyheter/innenriks/norsk-politikk/artikkel.php?artid=517112 |work=VG |date=2008-10-08 |accessdate=2008-10-09 ] . The British Ministry of Defence subsequently denied [cite news |first=Silje |last=Bryne |title=– Forbudt å bruke privat satelittelefon |url=http://www.kjendis.no/2008/10/08/549626.html |work=Dagbladet |date=2008-10-08 |accessdate=2008-10-09 ] that soldiers in the ISAF force were allowed to receive satellite phone calls. Following these revelations, Khan admitted that the phone bills were not due to overseas satellite calls, but rather from calls to Norwegian premium-rate numbers offering psychic advice servicescite news |first=Silje |last=Bryne |title=Ringte spåkoner likevel |url=http://www.kjendis.no/2008/10/08/549643.html |work=Dagbladet |date=2008-10-08 |accessdate=2008-10-09 ] [cite news |first=Randi |last=Johannessen |title=Innrømmer at hun ringte til klarsynte |url=http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/article2702122.ece |work=Aftenposten |date=2008-10-08 |accessdate=2008-10-09 ] . The morning after these revelations, October 8, Khan went on sick leave [cite news |first=Charlott Lokland |last=Pettersen |coauthors=Pål Nordseth |title=Saera er sykemeldt |url=http://www.kjendis.no/2008/10/09/549695.html |work=Dagbladet |date=2008-10-09 |accessdate=2008-10-09 ] and announced later in the day that she is resigning as candidate for the 2009 parliamentary elections [cite news |first=Gunnar |last=Magnus |coauthors=Geir Salvesen, Stine Barstad |title=Khan tar ikke gjenvalg |url=http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/article2703665.ece |work=Aftenposten |date=2008-10-09 |accessdate=2008-10-09 ] . Khan has repaid the part of her phone bills that exceeds reasonable use for a member of Parliament.

The BBC reported on 10 October 2008 [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7662908.stm] that she had made 793 calls and that "her calls became so frequent that many fortune-tellers told her to stop ringing".

References

*stortingetbio|STK