His mother belonged to County Kerry in Ireland.[6] Ashraf's parents met in England in 1939 while his father was studying philosophy at Oxford; they married in 1940, and settled in his paternal family's hometown of Pishin in Balochistan in 1947, from where his mother eventually came into Pakistani politics.[6][2] In 1956, when Ashraf was aged 14, his father died in a road accident. He was thus raised by his mother.[3] Ashraf has five half-siblings from his father's first marriage.[3]