He hailed from a Punjabi Pathan family who traced their roots Kakazai tribe of Pashtuns and spent his childhood in the Walled City of Lahore and thus the impact of pure Lahori culture was very much visible on his personality.[2]:xxx After completing his schooling in Lahore, he went to Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh to attend the MOA College of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), and was a roommate of Nazir Ahmed, a physicist and a bureaucrat.[3] At AMU he gained a BA degree in accountancy.[4]