Ateeq Ramzan with his family.

Jamil Khan, Senior Reporter

There was a time when people tried to make the most of their leisure hours. They had more than enough time in their possession all the time and they sat together and spent it profusely in different ways. The discussion on what was happening around them was prominent among many other interesting things. Folklore and poetry also interested many of them and people fond of such things knew how to dominate the sessions.

Ateeq Ramzan, a Pakistani expatriate who was born and brought up in Sharjah, compares those days with present days.

“In the early days of the UAE, it seemed that everyone including locals had plenty of time to spend with each other and sat together for hours without any profitable purposes. But time has changed as residents have more obligations to fulfil from family demands to business or work-related responsibilities and people like me dearly missed those days,” he said.

But he made one thing clear: that harmony among different expatriate communities has always been the top priority of the local authorities.

“I remembered my childhood days when we brothers used to go with our father for shopping at the anchored Iranian ship near Khalid Port in Sharjah to purchase fresh chicken, drinking water besides other kitchen and household items every Thursday evening as the Iranian ship regularly reached on Wednesday nights. We used to deal in Indian currency and lived near the Iranian Market in today’s Rolla area which is now declared as a heritage area by the local government,” he said.

Ateeq’s father, Muhammad Ramzan, came to Ajman in 1962 from Karachi on a peddle boat where a local official put the entry stamp on their passports even before they could embark on the shore. Soon after that, his father joined a local firm in Sharjah as a labourer and later moved to different construction firms to earn his livelihood.

His mother joined his father in 1965 with two of his elder siblings. Ateeq was born in 1968 in Sharjah. His birth certificate was issued by the Government of Sharjah when it was a princely state.

“My father worked in a number of construction firms in such a diligent manner that he got promotions regularly. He retired in 2000 from the post of General Foreman from Al Naboodah Construction Company and stayed here till his death in 2014. He was buried in Ajman cemetery,” he said.  Ateeq’s family hailed from Gujranwala of Pakistan where he and his siblings went for their education.

“We, four brothers and one sister, got our education in Pakistan. My father sent my mother there along with us in 1977,” he said.

Talking about the changing world, Ateeq Ramzan praised Sharjah for having plenty of internationally recognised educational institutions.

Ateeq obtained the Engineering degree in electrical and electronics from the University of Engineering & Technology Lahore and also completed his post-diploma in Bio-Medical from the Sheikh Zayed Hospital Lahore.

“We always came to the UAE. When I got a job here after completing my education, I began to live here permanently. I got my first job in 1999. For the last three years, I have been associated with Global Medical Supplier in Abu Dhabi and have been touring all over the Europe for training and work purposes,” he said.

He has two sons. Both of them are studying in local schools.