CAMBRIDGE CITY: Pakistani American citizens have been elected mayor and deputy mayor of Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Sumbal Siddiqui has been elected mayor of Cambridge City for the third time for the years 2026 and 2027, while Burhan Azim of Burewala, Punjab has been elected the youngest deputy mayor of Cambridge City.
Sumbul Siddiqui is serving her fourth term on the Cambridge City Council and served two terms as Mayor of Cambridge.
She is the first Muslim mayor in Massachusetts and the first female mayor to serve two consecutive terms in Cambridge.
Councillor Siddiqui immigrated to the United States from Karachi, Pakistan at the age of two, along with her parents and twin brother.
She was raised in Cambridge affordable housing and attended Cambridge Public Schools, graduating from Cambridge Rindge and Latin (CRLS). While a student at CRLS, Councillor Siddiqui’s passion for service and youth representation motivated her to co-found the Cambridge Youth Council, now in its 22nd year.
After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in public policy from Brown University, Councillor Siddiqui served as an AmeriCorps fellow at New Profit, a then Cambridge-based organization dedicated to improving social mobility for families. Upon earning her J.D. from Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law, she moved home to practice as a legal aid attorney with Northeast Legal Aid.
Burhan Azeem, a son of Professor Munir Chaudhry from the city of Burewala in Punjab, is an engineer from MIT University, Boston.
Burhan Azeem has previously been elected as the youngest councilor in the history of Cambridge City and has also become the youngest deputy mayor after being elected as a councilor for the second time.
