Muhammad Yousaf moved to Lahore in 2009. At the time, he was 11 years old and living with his khala. He had visited Lahore many times before, mostly as a treat to see his relatives that lived in the ‘big city’. He himself lived in Gujranwala.
They were a land owning family. His grandfather and great grandfather before him were both wheat farmers, but his father had begun diversifying the family business around the same time Yousaf moved to Lahore. Gujranwala’s population was growing, and so was the city. Yousaf’s father grew their subsistence level dairy farming operation, increasing his herd with imported cows and began selling milk to large milk producers. With the money he made from this, the family began selling ceramic bathroom tiles. That business, initially set up by bringing materials in from other cities and selling to people building homes and businesses in the city, has grown to a point where builders from neighbouring districts such as Narowal, Sialkot, and Hafizabad are regular customers.
Throughout this period of growth for the family, Yousaf remained in Lahore. He had been sent there to study at Lahore Grammar School. Over time, his younger brothers also started moving to Lahore and before long their father bought and set up a house for them in Lahore’s Johar Town area. Their mother moved in with them when the house was done, and then their father also began staying with the kids. Very quickly they began spending more time in their Lahore home than in Gujranwala. The father would commute back and forth while the kids studied.
Eventually, Yousaf went to LUMS and graduated with a degree in economics in 2020. For two years after, he worked in the accounts department of a multinational company’s Pakistan subsidiary based in Lahore. In 2022, he went to pursue his masters degree to Durham University in the UK.
During this time, Yousaf barely visited Gujranwala. The city he remembered was associated with languid summer vacations spent at the family’s farm on the outskirts of the district’s main urban area. While he was away for his masters, Yousaf’s parents moved back to Gujranwala where they built a one-kanal house in Citi Housing Society. The house cost Rs8 crore and was built with all the trappings of a “Spanish” style house with Italian marble tiles and imported fixtures for the bathrooms.
By the time Yousaf returned after completing his education in 2023, he was coming back to a very different city.
“The moment I realised this was a very different Gujranwala was when my brother told me they had opened up a second Baskin Robins here. I didn’t even know about the first one.” The content in this publication is expensive to produce. But unlike other journalistic outfits, business publications have to cover the very organizations that directly give them advertisements. Hence, this large source of revenue, which is the lifeblood of other media houses, is severely compromised on account of Profit’s no-compromise policy when it comes to our reporting. No wonder, Profit has lost multiple ad deals, worth tens of millions of rupees, due to stories that held big businesses to account. Hence, for our work to continue unfettered, it must be supported by discerning readers who know the value of quality business journalism, not just for the economy but for the society as a whole.To read the full article, subscribe and support independent business journalism in Pakistan
