ISLAMABAD: Sajid Tarar, a Pakistani-American businessman and close aide to former president Donald Trump, said on Friday that a majority of Muslim population in the United States (US) supported the Republican nominee in the upcoming presidential election, following the failure of President Joe Biden’s administration to have a ceasefire in Gaza.

Trump is facing Democratic nominee and US Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential election due to be held on November 5, with both candidates struggling to get maximum support of all communities, including Pakistani and Muslim diaspora, in the upcoming elections.

Tarar, who lives in Maryland and met Trump through his lawyer in 2016, is one of 136 members of Trump’s finance team and is believed to be instrumental in raising funds and organizing election campaigns for the former president across the US.

Speaking to Arab News, the Pakistani-American aide said Trump had repeatedly criticized the Biden administration’s “weak foreign policy” that led to Gaza and Ukraine wars and promised that he would stop both wars, if elected to power.

“The majority of Muslim voters, including the Pakistani diaspora in the US, has been aligning with Trump after the Biden administration’s failure to manage a ceasefire in Gaza,” said Tarar, who moved to the US from Pakistan’s Mandi Bahauddin district to study law some 36 years ago.

The US presidential election campaign is at its peak now and both candidates are struggling to woo voters, promising different reforms and policies, according to Tarar. Some 17 percent Muslims voted for Trump in the previous election, but this is going to be more than 50 precent in this election.

Tarar is currently in California for Trump’s fundraising and has been mobilizing Muslim communities, including 0.7 million Pakistanis, in the US. He believes Pakistan-US diplomatic and defense relations would improve under the Trump administration, which will bring peace and stability to the region and the world.

“Majority of Pakistani diaspora will vote for Trump for his stance on Gaza war and overall policies to foster peace across the globe,” the aide said. “Pakistan being next to China and Afghanistan cannot be ignored at all [by the US] as the Trump administration will be fully focusing on terrorism eradication and stability in the region.”

About the notion that Trump could push Pakistan to release former prime minister Imran Khan from jail if he was elected, Tarar said the Pakistani diaspora was divided over their party affiliations back home and its influence in the US presidential election was “minimal.”

“Even if Trump wins, obviously, he won’t be interfering in Pakistan’s judicial system to get Imran Khan released,” he said. “Some Pakistani-Americans have been pedaling this thing on social media, but there is no truth to it that President Trump would interfere in local Pakistani politics.”

Tarar said a few Pakistani-Americans had tried to discuss Khan’s imprisonment and local Pakistani politics with Trump at a fundraiser, but the US presidential nominee “did not pay any heed to it.”

He expressed his hope that Trump would win the election on the basis of his “vibrant and dynamic” campaign. “If the US presidential election is free, fair and legal, there is no doubt Donald Trump will win the polls with a thumping majority,” Tarar added.