The following is a tribute by Naiyer Azam for their maternal uncle Jan Mohammad Khalil Ashraf at his 25th death anniversary.
My Mamoon Jan was the eldest among his seven brothers and
six sisters. Only my mother to whom he fondly called Apan
(Aapa Jan to her other siblings) was older than him.
It has been 25 years that he left us for his eternal abode at a comparatively young age of 62.
My mother used to love and care all his brothers and sisters but he was very special to her. They remained very close to each other throughout their lives. He also had very cordial relations with my father, Dr M Ikram.
During his four year stay there he lived in various towns in Lancashire – Blackburn, Preston and Bolton – hubs of textile industry. After his graduation from the University of Blackburn he came back home in December 1960.
On return from UK he worked with reputable textile mills – with Dawood Cotton Mills in Landhi and Fateh Group in Hyderabad - serving as General Manager and Director and later as a consultant.
In 1975 he went to work in Tanzania. His textile mill, where he served as General Manager, was located at beautiful town of Arusha, near Mount Kilimanjaro. He took his family with him where they stayed until the end of 1979. I was told that their stay in Arusha was most memorable and enjoyable.
He was a warm and loving person with great sense of humour. He filled up a room with his smile and laughter and could keep everyone entertained for hours with his stories and conversations. I still remember those lovely evenings in the 80’s when he with Mamani Jan used to visit my parents.
When he was in UK (1956-60) he used to keep regular contacts with my parents by exchanging letters – to my mother in Urdu and to my father in English. I must say he was so brilliant in both these languages. He was sort of a linguist – besides Urdu and English he was fluent in spoken Punjabi and during stay in Tanzania learnt Swahili as well.
Here I would like to share a moment of respect that I had for my Mamoon Jan. Probably it was the year 1974 or 1975 I was traveling by train from Euston, London to Blackpool, a seaside town in Lancashire and I chose the train route which was to stop at Preston. During that brief stop over at Preston I bought a view card and posted to Mamoon Jan saying that ‘I am at Preston railway station where you at some point of time of your stay used to use the same platform while traveling to Blackburn or Bolton’.
The last time I met him was on the occasion of Sarwar’s
wedding in June 1988. I was living in Islamabad at that time.
During one of the meeting Shehla and I urged him and also to
my Abbi that they should come and visit us there. Time did not
allow them and both were unable to visit Islamabad.
Just three months later on 22 August 1988 I received a call from
Karachi that he died after a brief illness. He was admitted to Aga
Khan Hospital a day earlier.
He was a great man who meant a lot to his entire family. He left behind Mamani Jan, three sons and two daughters – Dr Tariq Ashraf, Arif Ashraf, Aamir Ashraf, Zebunnisan Syed and Mehrunnisan Iftikhar and twelve grand children to mourn.
It saddens me that he is no longer with us but I know he is at peace in the heavens.
I will always miss him!
October 20, 1942
It has been 25 years that he left us for his eternal abode at a comparatively young age of 62.
My mother used to love and care all his brothers and sisters but he was very special to her. They remained very close to each other throughout their lives. He also had very cordial relations with my father, Dr M Ikram.
Mamoon Jan was born in Patna, Bihar, India. He came over to Pakistan just before partition in
1947. He was sent to Karachi early to arrange shelters for the family. On the advice from other
relatives he chose Bihar Colony Masan Road where he acquired three plots of land in a row - one
each for Nana Jan, Ammi and Khala Jan. Khala Jan & Khalo Jan (Syed Abul Hasan) reached
Karachi on 11 Sep 1948, the day Quaid-e-Azam died and in 1951 my parents with three young
children (me, Shama and Rizwana) and Chotte Mamoon (Anis ul Haque) arrived in Karachi
followed by Aapa & Chacha Abbi (Manzoor Ahmed) in 1952 and Nana Jan along with Nani Jan
and their other children – 4 sons and 4 daughters - in 1954: Sayeed Akhtar, A F M Nisar ul
Haque, Aziz Ashraf, Khurshid Anwer and Raziqa, Farhat, Rafat and Talat.
Those were the days of struggle and hardships. Due to this Mamoon Jan initially suffered his education and after doing Intermediate Commerce he temporarily had to work with a commercial company, TAK & Co dealing in textile machinery. The company was located at Standard Chartered Building on McLeoad Road (now I I Chundriger Road). Seeing his technical acumen, his boss Mr Ashfaq later sent him to work in a textile mill in Liaquatabad, formerly Piplan tehsil city near Mianwali in Punjab where he learnt the trade in cotton spinning. He joined there as an apprentice. This was the turning point that paved the way for him to begin his career in textile industry and later on establishing himself nationwide as textile technologist of high repute.
Mamoon Jan got married to Nasima Ismail. His wedding on 22 June 1955 was first in the family after they migrated from India and settled down in Karachi. It was a simple but traditional wedding. In those days the wedding ceremonies were not as extravagant as we can see today. As a young boy I remember all the excitement the family had at that time. Soon after the birth of his eldest son, Tariq (a dental surgeon) he left for UK for higher education in textile technology.
Those were the days of struggle and hardships. Due to this Mamoon Jan initially suffered his education and after doing Intermediate Commerce he temporarily had to work with a commercial company, TAK & Co dealing in textile machinery. The company was located at Standard Chartered Building on McLeoad Road (now I I Chundriger Road). Seeing his technical acumen, his boss Mr Ashfaq later sent him to work in a textile mill in Liaquatabad, formerly Piplan tehsil city near Mianwali in Punjab where he learnt the trade in cotton spinning. He joined there as an apprentice. This was the turning point that paved the way for him to begin his career in textile industry and later on establishing himself nationwide as textile technologist of high repute.
Mamoon Jan got married to Nasima Ismail. His wedding on 22 June 1955 was first in the family after they migrated from India and settled down in Karachi. It was a simple but traditional wedding. In those days the wedding ceremonies were not as extravagant as we can see today. As a young boy I remember all the excitement the family had at that time. Soon after the birth of his eldest son, Tariq (a dental surgeon) he left for UK for higher education in textile technology.
During his four year stay there he lived in various towns in Lancashire – Blackburn, Preston and Bolton – hubs of textile industry. After his graduation from the University of Blackburn he came back home in December 1960.
On return from UK he worked with reputable textile mills – with Dawood Cotton Mills in Landhi and Fateh Group in Hyderabad - serving as General Manager and Director and later as a consultant.
He was a warm and loving person with great sense of humour. He filled up a room with his smile and laughter and could keep everyone entertained for hours with his stories and conversations. I still remember those lovely evenings in the 80’s when he with Mamani Jan used to visit my parents.
When he was in UK (1956-60) he used to keep regular contacts with my parents by exchanging letters – to my mother in Urdu and to my father in English. I must say he was so brilliant in both these languages. He was sort of a linguist – besides Urdu and English he was fluent in spoken Punjabi and during stay in Tanzania learnt Swahili as well.
Here I would like to share a moment of respect that I had for my Mamoon Jan. Probably it was the year 1974 or 1975 I was traveling by train from Euston, London to Blackpool, a seaside town in Lancashire and I chose the train route which was to stop at Preston. During that brief stop over at Preston I bought a view card and posted to Mamoon Jan saying that ‘I am at Preston railway station where you at some point of time of your stay used to use the same platform while traveling to Blackburn or Bolton’.
He was a great man who meant a lot to his entire family. He left behind Mamani Jan, three sons and two daughters – Dr Tariq Ashraf, Arif Ashraf, Aamir Ashraf, Zebunnisan Syed and Mehrunnisan Iftikhar and twelve grand children to mourn.
It saddens me that he is no longer with us but I know he is at peace in the heavens.
I will always miss him!
