storyline is integrated into the Karims' marriage in 1989, when Ashraf is revealed to be having a long-running affair with a white woman named Stella (Cindy O'Callaghan), causing many family problems. The culmination of this storyline sees the departure of the Karims in June 1990; they were among many to be axed by executive producer Michael Ferguson. It has been reported that the fate of Sufia was originally scripted differently. Prior to Ferguson's introduction, Gibbon had recruited writer David Yallop to devise ways to kill various members of the cast based, he claims, on their portrayer's acting ability. According to Yallop, Gibbon had agreed that Sufia would be gunned-down and killed in a shotgun raid. The plot never came to fruition, as Gibbon was demoted as head producer and then resigned. Family tree Ashraf KarimAshraf Karim, played by Tony Wredden in 1987 and Aftab Sachak from 1988 to 1990, came to Britain from Bangladesh in 1968 and was already betrothed to Sufia (Rani Singh), who was still a child in Bangladesh. Before he returned to Bangladesh to be married to Sufia, he met and had a fling with Stella (Cindy O'Callaghan), a young hippy, and their relationship continued on and off after Sufia emigrated to Britain to be with her husband in 1973. Sufia knew about Stella, and suspected other affairs and found them all distressing. In the beginning, Ashraf worked in a car manufacturing plant in the Midlands. Later on, relatives in Walford East London offered him a job in one of their corner shops and he, Sufia and their two small children, Shireen (Nisha Kapur) and Sohail (Ronnie Jhutti), came south to live. He saved enough money to open a business of his own, although racist taunts and attacks made life difficult for him. Even so, by putting in long hours he finally made a success of running his third shop in Walford High Street. Ashraf is the second cousin of Saeed Jeffery (Andrew Johnson) and upon Saeed's return to Bangladesh in 1985 he takes over ownership of the flat above the Jeffery's grocery store, First Til Last. Ashraf first appears in July 1987, when he comes to inform the tenants, Sue and Ali Osman (Sandy Ratcliff and Nejdet Salih), that he is selling the flat. Ali wants to buy it but cannot afford it and so the flat is sold to Alan McIntyre (Pip Miller). In January