Al Mujarrah was a known quantity long before any of this. "This area in Sharjah called Al Mujarrah is famous in itself," Khawar says.

The little intersection in that area, around Rain Room in Sharjah, are nestled multiple Pakistani shops, Pakistani sweets, Pakistani Supermarket, Al Nawab restaurant which serves authentic Pakistani cuisine, Pakistani meat shop, tailors, and more, all majorly owned and kick-started by one man.

Khawar's parents were already in the UAE by the early 1970s. He followed in 1979 and spent years in a government job before the itch to build something of his own became too strong to ignore.

His first venture was a sweet shop in Abu Dhabi. Then he looked towards Sharjah and Dubai.

"I noticed how in Abu Dhabi we had one or two Pakistani stores, but at that time there were none in Sharjah and Dubai," he recalls. So, he opened Al Hajjaj Grocery in Al Mujarrah in 2000. He slowly built the list of things he sold starting from: fruit, vegetables, daals, spices, drinks and sweets, all sourced from Pakistan.

The part of the operation Khawar sounds proudest of is the speed, and the fact that customers could name almost anything.

"Back then, people would come to us and say that near Lahore, Peshawar or Rawalpindi there is this thing that I like to eat and drink and would like to order it," he says. "We would then order those things and provide it to them in around 24 hours."

The next idea was to stop importing the finished product and start making it here.

He took the plan to his brother, Haji Muhammad Yaseen, who later then opened Pakistan Supermarket in the same cluster of streets. Together they launched Pakistani Sweets, working with traditional ingredients like khoya and mawa and turning out sweets in the Pakistani style. Gol gappay and samosas followed, then a wider snack counter. About seven years ago came Al Nawab Restaurant, which now has branches in across UAE.

The way they have maintained the same taste all these years is due to, Khawar's strict policy. "What we eat ourselves is what we serve to the customers. We only use fresh beef and chicken, because I don't believe in using any frozen foods."

The customer base outgrew the community that built it.

"We get people from all different nationalities, Indian, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Filipino," says Khawar. "Especially when it's mango season, we have lines and lines of people lining up to get mangoes."

Ask him for the lesson and he does not reach for anything complicated.

"I believe in life, if you work hard and put your all into something, you will be successful," he says. "Especially in the UAE. If you work hard in this country, it will always bear fruit."

Twenty-six years on, his legacy lives on a neighbourhood that took its name from the people who shop there, on a road that once had no one visiting, and a driver who knows exactly where to go when you say, 'Take me to Pakistan Chowk'.