Transitions: Peshawar’s first Fellow Chartered Accountant laid to rest

Rafaqatullah Babar founded a pioneer chartered accountants firm in K-P. He was also an adviser to the chief minister.

PESHAWAR: “Every step in your career must be digested by you before you take the next step. There are no shortcuts, shortcuts will rip you apart.”

These are the words of a self-made man, the first ever Fellow Chartered Accountant in Peshawar, Rafaqatullah Babar who founded the chartered accountant college in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, and passed away earlier this week.

Rafaqat was born in Pirpai, Nowshera in 1956. He completed his CA in 1980 and in 1986 established Rafaqat Babar & Co as a pioneer chartered accountants firm in K-P. Plans for the expansion of the company were afoot in 1996 and within five years branches in Karachi and Islamabad had been established. The company’s Kabul office was set up in 2005.

Babar Khan, colleague and a friend of Rafaqat, while talking to The Express Tribune said that in 1991, Rafaqat established a private commerce college in Peshawar for the first time, which later on expanded to open others branches in the city due to an increasing number of students.

According to Khan, Rafaqat was politically affiliated with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and when PTI came into power in K-P he was offered the position of economic coordinator to the K-P Chief Minister as well as the head of the provincial investment promotion cell.

He accepted the position and had been serving since June last year.

Malik Tajamul Hayat, a family member of Rafaqat who considered him his mentor told The Express Tribune that Rafaqat wasn’t just his friend and senior but also his brother-in-law.  Hayat said Rafaqat was goal-oriented person and among the few people in K-P who completed his CA in the 1980s with high grades.

Babar was on his way back to Peshawar from Shandur festival in Gilgit on Monday when his vehicle plunged into a deep ravine near Khawaza Khel, Swat. He was severely injured along with his wife and son. He was shifted to the ICU in Lady Reading Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

Rafaqat was buried on Friday in his hometown. He leaves behind a widow, two sons and two daughters.