In 1990 Ahmed began his political career as a local Labour Party councillor, becoming the chair of the South Yorkshire Labour Party in 1993 and holding both positions until 2000. He founded the British Muslim Councillors' Forum and was a magistrate between 1992 and 2000. He was the first Asian councillor in Rotherham and the town's youngest magistrate. He enjoyed backing from the Pakistan government, and is known for lobbying in the British Parliament on the Kashmir issue on Pakistan's behalf, including holding anti-India protests outside the Indian Embassy in London to educate the international community. He claims to have changed the policies of the Labour Party to the extent that, for the first time in British history, Kashmir was discussed on the floor of the conference. He is associated with the Justice Foundation, which organised that conference and whose director at that time was Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai - a Pakistani Kashmir lobbyist arrested by the USA for spying and illegal lobbying, and according to US prosecutors the Justice Foundation's "Kashmir Centres" in UK, USA and Saudi Arabia are run on behalf of the Pakistani government and its military intelligence Inter-Services Intelligence Agency.