1988, Ashraf employs cousins in his shop in Walford, which leaves him free to buy and run First Til Last in Bridge Street, which is owned by Saeed's wife Naima (Shreela Ghosh) and has been run by her cousin Rezaul Kabir (Tanveer Ghani) until the Karims' arrival. The Karims then move into a house in Victoria Road, which was previously owned by the hairdresser, Julie Cooper (Louise Plowright) and Ashraf sends his two children to private school. The first thing Ashraf does is hire Arthur Fowler (Bill Treacher) to work at the First Til Last. However problems arise when Arthur manages to offend one of their Asian customers by including a meat product in her delivery. Ashraf decides to punish Arthur by giving him the humiliating task of being the paper delivery boy. After much teasing from the Walford residents Arthur dumps the papers without delivering them, causing many angry complaints from irate customers. Ashraf then decides that Arthur has to write each customer a letter of apology and personally deliver them, further humiliating him. Animosity between the pair only worsens and by July that year Arthur is sacked. The Karims keep themselves to themselves, and Ashraf is particularly protective of his daughter, Shireen. He becomes extremely concerned when she starts spending a lot of time with Ricky Butcher (Sid Owen) and he tries to nip their blossoming relationship in the bud. However Shireen continues to see Ricky behind his back and when her brother, Sohail, reveals the relationship, Ashraf is furious. He bans her from seeing him and bans Ricky from his shop. Ashraf decides that the only way to stop her from fraternising with undesirable men is to marry her off to an eligible Muslim suitor - much to Shireen's dismay. Muslim culture dictates that betrothed women must be virgins before marrying and so in the light of her dalliance with Ricky, Ashraf decides that Shireen has to have a virginity test performed. He marches her off to Dr. Harold Legg (Leonard Fenton) and demands that he performs one, but is refused. Ashraf becomes incensed at Dr Legg's refusal and is even more enraged when he has the audacity to suggest that he should put aside his traditional values and embrace western ones. In November 1989 Sufia discovers that Ashraf is still carrying on with his mistress, Stella. Sufia decides to pack her things and threatens to leave.