METU 1969-1975, BCP/MCP in City Planning, Architecture Faculty

Chief Planner, NESPAK

Born: 21 July 1948, Married: 1 January 1979

Wife: Aneesa Naheed

Died: 12 February 2016 at Karachi, cardiac arrest

Mohammad Aslam

Bil Khair

When Sharfu and I visited him in December last year, I had an inkling it could be our last meeting. You always hope for the best. He was being discharged from the hospital. I wanted to visit him again and to share some songs and talk. He had a good collection of music. And he kept the memorabilia of past years handy. He was such a lovable person- the dear Dagga, Bootha and whatever we called him he would be all smiles and excited and return a taunt or two.

His first job was as a city planner with KMC. Later he joined Nespak. His home was in North Nazimabad where he lived with his large family. We both were married then and I and Rukhsana used to visit him on our motorcycle and exchange notes on one of our common problems. I wouldn’t share what the problem was, but he and I would joke about ‘our’ pencil which yet wouldn’t write despite being sharpened by the sharpener so vigorously. And we would be worried that only a little of the pencil was left.

Back in 1974, when we came up with an edition of ‘Bhang’ vs roznama ‘Jung’, we published the news of his death, ‘Khatima bil Khair’, he laughed it off. Forty-two years later, he said yes. Bil khair. Goodbye good friend.

Nahid, his wife is a dear friend as is his sister Surayya, who lived in Seaview like us. Rukhsana is devastated thinking about Surayya. She befriended a French Canadian here because she looked like Surayya and this is her second name now. Surayya loves us because we were Shoaib’s friends. Friendship is a love affair.

One of the pictures I found with me was at Ahsan’s home. Ahsan will post more from the parties at his home. I have some more recent pictures when we visited him in 2013 and 2014. I will post in a few days.

Find a place in Jannah, plan a city for us, Shoaib. Find me a home in Botal Gali.

aslamche75
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Kazi Zulkader Siddiqui

Extremely sad to know Shoaib left us. May Allah grant him jannatul firdaus and sabr to his wife and family.

Shoaib was from our 1969 entry. We were total around 35 friends who went to METU that year. Five of us got CENTO scholarships that year, one per each faculty. Shoaib got it for Architecture. Indeed, he was a very friendly and happy person.

Will miss him In grief
Kazi Zulkader Siddiqui, Islamabad

Mohammed Ali Khan - Feb 12 9:29 PM

I am very sorry to hear about Mohammed Shoaib. Inna lillahe wa inna ilaihe rajeoon.

He came to Ankara when I was packing up, so did not see him much there. He did both his BS and MS in one straight go around, bravo. Last I saw him October 2015 in Karachi. I asked him how are his days, he said, 3 days of week go by for dialysis and the rest of the days are weakness from it. But he was courageous and ready to take on what ever his illness was sapping him. Surely I will miss him, the next time when I come to Karachi.

As always he was friendly and soft spoken, always soft spoken he was, even in Ankara younger days.
Mohammed Ali Khan, California, USA

Mustafa Ali

It came as a shock for me to know that our dear friend Shuaib Ji has passed away. Inna Lillahe wa Inna Ilayhe Rajeoon. I am extremely saddened to hear about this loss.

He was the most sane and sensible of all our team , during the times when sanity and sensibility was in short supply. Also a cool adviser to us during our rough times. I still remember his sharp humor and blunt wit. He would utter his opinion about us severely and followed by a large laugh. Above all he was well-loved member of our group at the Cankaya apartment.

May Allah bless his soul and give strength to his family to bear this loss.

Shoaib Ji’s departure brought back many fond memories of METU ….

Recently I was at a social gathering among my Pakistani friends here and one of the members of the crowd threw a general question at the gathering to elicit some excitement. The question was, Can you tell apart the, best, most enjoyable period of your life and why do you think it was the best?

My first gut reaction was to state that my present time these days in Canada (Alhamdolillah) is the best one I have lived so far , but on second thoughts, later on, I thought that actually that’s not quite true.

The time we spent at METU, despite all the gut wrenching challenges and stress of midterms, desperately trying to maintain some level of respectability in our grades, figuring out what courses to take and drop in the semester, the brutal cold weather, being imprisoned at the university stadium for two days, and above all constantly working at our level best to catch a summer job in good old Almanya, …………….at that young age , it was certainly the most enriching experience and the best of times.

I have a few Turkish friends here in Toronto and actually there is a Turkish project manager who is part of my team. To all of these Turkish friends I have said that your country provided me with the most valuable knowledge and enriching experience with respect to managing friendships, relations and a unique opportunity to see the world with very pure and authentic pair of eyes. We managed to live and travel to Europe ( especially Germany) , Middle east and last but not the least, Iran and Afghanistan with extremely meagre resources, learned to develop strong bonds of friendship within ourselves and above all had a thoroughly enjoyable, enriching and elevating priceless life experience during those years . Could we have achieved all that had we stayed in Pakistan ? definitely not.

To sum it all up, Dear Shuaib ji was ever present with us during all those adventures, from living at Cankaya Apartment, at the University Dormitory to travelling by road to Beirut and Pakistan in bitter cold December. He was a great companion and a constant source of direction and humor.

May Allah bless his soul.

Mustafa Ali

Syed Shah Alam

always listening to Neil Diamond in those METU days.

Syed Ahmed (Tipu)

I met him at his home a couple of years ago, he had been going thru medical complications.
A very friendly, humble, polite and helpful person he was.

Yadullah Haider

Deeply grieved to hear about Shoaib. He was a wonderful person, very friendly and very helpful.

Mukhtar Husain

Shocked and grieved. I had no idea he was in such a bad shape. Being right here in Karachi, we had not met for a long time. We had worked together, in UAE in the seventies, and later at NESPAK in Karachi.

Will miss him.

Mazhar Husain

Very sad news. ILWIAR .he was such a good and close friend. I talked to him about ten days ago . God bless his soul and give him a place in paradise.

Arif Khan

I am really saddened by this news. Shuaib was a wonderful guy with a very like able personality.

He was in my batch (1969), he always had a great smile and will joke around. Unfortunately being in USA I lost in touch with him, few years ago I visited him in Karachi, his demeanor was the same but he was suffering from some health problems.

Arif, Chicago, USA