My father, Arshad Ahmed, who has died aged 86, was a trailblazing British Pakistani businessman. He started out in Stockport at the age of 17, selling stockings on a market stall, and often slept there overnight to secure the best spot.
With much perseverance, he was able to buy his own premises, where he founded Ahmed’s of Stockport. It became the go-to place for affordable clothing and is still remembered fondly today by locals who described it as the Primark of its time. Building on this success, in 1960 Arshad created Jawaid Hosiery, one of Manchester’s most successful wholesalers in women’s fashion. By the time he stepped back from running the business in 2000, he had moved into importing and exporting clothing.
Arshad’s business success was rooted not only in hard work but in his remarkable ability to connect with people from all walks of life. He learned Yiddish to talk to his Jewish customers, conversed in Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi with all his south Asian shoppers, Arabic with his Arab customers, and mastered English as his main language.
A visionary in both commerce and community life, Arshad supported the re-establishment in 1971 of one of Manchester’s first mosques, Victoria Park. His greatest legacy, however, was forged in 1983, when he co-founded the Muslim Youth Foundation (MYF), operating from the fourth floor of his warehouse in the heart of Manchester.
The MYF supported Muslim youths at a time when many felt disconnected from their faith, compounded by the challenges of belonging, and helped nurture a confident emerging British Muslim identity. It also taught moderate, mainstream Islam in English, while also serving as a space for sport and recreation.
It became an incubator for many local initiatives, including the British Muslim Heritage Centre, Cheadle Muslim Association, Altrincham Muslim Association, the Manchester Muslim Educational Trust, KD grammar school, and one of Britain’s first Islamic finance companies.
Born in Jalandhar, in the Punjab region of British India, Arshad was just nine years old when he was forced to flee his home with his parents, Mohammada Bibi and Shabbir Hussain, and siblings during the partition of 1947. The family crossed into the newly formed Pakistan aboard military trucks.
Arshad travelled to the UK in 1956 aboard the SS Circasia, carrying only a small suitcase and a copy of the Qur’an, in order to study for a diploma of technology in Bolton. His father had arrived six years earlier and was already working in the cotton mills in the north of Manchester, part of the booming textile industry.
Soon after arriving, Arshad gave up his studies to support his father, while also financially supporting his younger siblings and mother in Wazirabad, Pakistan, who joined them a few years later.
Arshad was exceptionally hardworking, humble and generous. Widely respected, he was often called upon to support community affairs, offer financial help to those in need – regardless of faith or background – and mentor aspiring entrepreneurs.
He is survived by his wife, Bilqees (nee Akhtar), whom he married in 1962, their six children, Zahda, Anjum, Yasmin, Farouk, Amar and me, 20 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.
