Ghulam Sarwar Khan Chohan joined his cousin Chirag Din Chohan in Middlesbrough in 1937. He served in an Indian brigade of the British Army in the Second World War, and later worked for the company Dorman Long. In 1947 he returned to the newly created Pakistan for an arranged marriage to 16-year-old Nafees Akhar. It is thought that Nafees, who arrived in 1949 unable to speak a word of English, was the first Pakistani woman to settle in Middlesbrough. The couple lived in  Grange Road and had three children, Shahadha, Bari and Araf.