Wali Mohammed,Grandad and Shah zam,three brothers united in liverpool, Circa 1960

Fakhru Zaman, My Grandfather

My Grandfathers move from Pakistan and Germany, to Leeds

My grandmother told me about my grandfather’s life before moving to Britain. My grandfather, who I called Nano Abu, passed away in 2017. He had moved to Leeds in 1955 from Karachi.

When in Pakistan, my grandfather had been a teacher who  taught History at a local high school. He also taught Urdu language, is claim to fam being that he had tutored Nusrat Bhutto, mother of Benazir Bhutto (former Prime Minister of Pakistan). It is easy to assume that most people were illiterate or unskilled when they came from the sub continent to the UK ,which may have been true for a number of those who migrated but a number of people like my grandfather were highly educated and well read.

when  he finally moved to Britain, my grandfather, like many fellow Pakistani’s, who were  limited in his options  for work, handing in his teaching cap for a job  at  Monkbridge, in the steel industry.

At one point, he and his brothers shared a house on Chaplan street with their friend Mir Boston the camera man. The street where they lived had been  home to only one other house of Pakistani and Kashmiri men .Close behind where the the later Primrose High school would be opened there had been an old Quarry. Sadly The old back to back they shared no longer exists, nor does the street remain as the St James Hospital’s Bexley wing expansion and redevelopment of the area has removed the old terraced streets.

In 1972 he would go to  East Germany experiencing work life in the city of Frankfurt.

My Grandfather developed an affinity with the Yorkshire countryside, often accompanying on his days off from the factory to enjoy the countryside. Something else he would look forward to was  fish and chip on a Tuesday, a tradition he continued  with his  family later on! In those days you paid in pence for a full fish and chips and nowadays its more than £5.

Commemorating Heritage

I have many aspects to my identity: I am British, Pakistani and Muslim. My cultural identity relates to my Pakistani ethnicity. Many of my father’s side of the family still live in Karachi.

I think it’s important to remember our heritage and to reflect on the lives our elderly relatives lived prior to moving to the UK. What ever I was able to extract from my Grandmothers recanting of Grandads life brought him closer to me, despite him now being deceased.

The Puraani Yadein project, alongside Leeds Museums, aims to commemorate the cultural history of the city and the civic contributions that many of our grandparents made.

You can read more about my grandad in another interesting article featuring grandad Fakhru Zaman and his brothers: https://theconversation.com/three-families-stories-of-new-beginnings-after-the-horror-of-indian-partition-82393

Article by Hafsah Hussan

Photo 1: My Grandfather worked as a trams conductor for a short while.

Photo 2: Fakhru Zaman (centre), with his brothers: Wali Mohammed (left) and Shah Zaman (right) in Liverpool, circa 1960.