Pakistani community leader Ahsan Rashid passes away

A well-known Pakistani businessman, politician and philanthropist died in Lahore on Tuesday.
Ahsan Rashid had lived in the Kingdom for 28 years before heading to Pakistan in 2006 to become a politician. He was 70 and leaves behind a wife, two sons, Salman and Mansoor, and a daughter.
He was a very popular figure among expatriates in the Kingdom and was known for his philanthropy and generosity. He was the president of Al-Hamrani Fuchs Petroleum Saudi Arabia Ltd., a company he helped establish. He was impressed by the politics of Imran Khan and joined him in the hope of ushering in change in the country.
He had been ill for the past few months with cancer. He went to Germany for treatment but nothing could be done for him. He will be laid to rest in Lahore on Wednesday. Several colleagues and friends in Jeddah, including Zultec CEO Zulqiurnain Ali Khan and Fuchs Petroleum President Zafar A. Talpur, have left for Pakistan to attend his funeral prayers at Cavalry Ground in Lahore.
In an interview with Arab News in July 2006 before heading to Pakistan, Rashid said his goal was to take all the skills he learned while in top management and put them to good use in Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, of which he was a founder member.
“I consider myself very fortunate for having had the opportunity to live and work in Jeddah. The biggest privilege was being close to the two holy mosques,” Rashid told Arab News in the interview.
In 1967 he was working for Pakistan State Oil company when a delegation from Petromin, visiting from Saudi Arabia, recruited him to work in the Kingdom. After two years at Petromin, Rashid was dissatisfied with his career and was planning to return to Pakistan when the Al-Hamrani Group approached him. He spent the next decades helping the company become one of the largest lubricating oil suppliers in the Middle East.