“My family has been involved in garments business for generations. I started going to my father’s shop in Peshawar’s Karkhano Bazaar when I was in 5th grade. We are four brothers and two sisters. I am the eldest among my siblings. Because of my father’s health, I dropped out from school and joined my father’s business full time in 1992. I studied till the 8th class.

Around 12 years ago, me and my father moved to Hassanabdal and bought a house there. I opened a cosmetics shop in Rawalpindi’s Raja Bazaar. My father handed over the shop in Karkhano Bazaar to my brothers and started serving the pilgrims at Punja Sahib. I commute from Hassanabdal to Rawalpindi daily. I have one son and five daughters, and all of them study in Hassanabdal. I would want my son to join the family business. This is what we are good at.

I ran my cosmetics shop for three years and then handed it over to my younger brother. I opened a garments shop in Purana Qila. It has been nine years now.

I basically deal in saris which we import from New Delhi. There is a great demand for India sari here. I also have fancy dresses which I get them prepared here itself.

Though several shopping malls have come up in the city where shops offer a variety of dresses, Purana Qila has still not lost its significance. We have customers from all over Rawalpindi, Gujar Khan and even Islamabad. We do good business during wedding season.

We have relatives in India and we visit the country too, but most of our visits are related to our religious occasions. We were very happy when we heard that Kartarpur corridor was being opened. This way we could have met our relatives.”

Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2019