Mohamed Hussein Bhai was born on 29 th May 1932 in Bukoba Tanganyika, part of a family of seven sisters and five brothers. Initially he apprenticed as a tailor, sewing garments, working for his uncle in Soroti (a craft that he still practices as his hobby to this day, altering clothes for the family whenever the need arises). Starting from his younger days in his hometown of Bukoba, he was actively involved in the Bukoba Jamaat initially serving as a volunteer in the Gusl/Kafan Committee, etc. He later became Chairman of Young Men’s Union for some 10 years
During the 1950’s Bukoba Jamaat had a very strong Ithna’Asheri young Men’s Union under the chairmanship of Mohammed Hussein Punjani and secretary Pyarali Bandali. Mohammed Hussein with his elder brother Mohamedali fitted the Tabut with electric bulbs that ran on lorry batteries! In the 1950’s, Mohammed Hussein took the first 35mm film of the Tabut Procession and the whole Jamaat was captivated to see themselves projected on a large screen in the Mosque In 1957 Mohamed Hussein proposed to take two youth students in his committee for leadership training and Rustamali Shivji Karim at age 17 and Raza Abdullah Fazal age 15 were duly selected… However, because the love of automobiles had always been his first passion, in 1955 he traded his scissors for a spanner and a wrench, and with a small loan from his brother-in-law, he started trading in used vehicles with Mohamedali. They started from a small makeshift garage, but soon expanded their business to a brand-new location on the main street of Bukoba under the name of Punjani Brothers Ltd.
Since a majority of their inventory of used vehicles were being imported from Uganda, they branched out to Kampala. In 1960 Mohamed Hussein moved to Kampala with his small family and opened a showroom on William Street. By the grace of God, the business thrived and soon the premises were not large enough to accommodate the growth in the trade, so in 1968 they moved to a larger location on 32 Jinja Road, which was purchased from his friend and competitor, Tajdin Alibhai (of Alibhai’s Garage Ltd).
The opening of the new Punjani Motors Ltd was officiated by the Honorable Mayor. By the grace of Allah, and standing next to the Mayor, Mohamed Hussein felt proud that from their humble beginnings from a small garage in Bukoba, together with his brother, he had struggled and persevered to reach this point in life, where they had the largest indoor showroom in Uganda. On this special
occasion, he missed his elder brother, Mohamedali, who he lost in a tragic road accident traveling from Bukoba to Kampala on a business trip on 7th July 1964. One lesson he has learned in his 89 years of living is that you can never take anything for granted. Life is full of trials and tribulations, but if you have faith first in God, and then in yourself, you can face any challenge life throws at you… The biggest challenge was yet to come in the summer of 1972!
Life in the “Pearl of Africa” (as coined by Winston Churchill) was idyllic during the late 60’s till
mid 1972. Though our community was not large by today’s standards, it was rich in culture and faith.
The Jamaat and the Mosque was the center of social life. From commemorating our holy days during
Ramadan and Muharram, to celebrating weddings and sports events, the center was our source of
fulfillment. Everyone knew each other by their first names.
Mohamed Hussein remembers very well closing shop every day and heading to mosque to perform the
Maghrib and Isha prayers and meeting such great luminaries as the late Ebrahim Bhai Kassam and the late Habib Bhai Walji – his mentor and closest friend who had supported him from the time he moved to Kampala in 1960. His young boys would also eagerly accompany him, encouraged by presents donated annually by the family! Lots of memorable occasions were recorded. The opening
ceremony of a Dispensary built and donated by Habib Bhai Walji was recorded by Mohamed
Hussein on video (the only video available at that time). Both these gracious gentlemen would play a large part later on in life when they all moved back to Kampala in 1994 to rebuild their
community from ashes of destruction wrought by “one man” and his depraved dream in 1972.
In 1962 Uganda became independent from being a British colony and Dr Milton Obote was elected first president of Uganda. Under his army, a relatively unknown lieutenant soon rose through the ranks to become a Major General, whose residence shared the same fence at no 9 Acacia Avenue next to Mohamed Hussein’s house on 7. Loud music from the army band used to be the norm at his parties on weekends – complaining was not an option! This same army strongman made history in 1971 by toppling Obote’s government through a coup d’etat and installed himself as the President of Uganda!
When the expulsion of all Asians was announced by the then President Idi Amin in the summer of
1972, most of our community members were in denial. But soon enough, the reality sank in when
they realized that this was not a nightmare they would wake from, and the scramble started to prepare for the exodus
Mohamed Hussein managed to obtain a special exemption from the Ministry of Home Affairs to
stay on because his businesses were deemed to be of strategic national interest. In August of
1972, he went over to settle his children in the United Kingdom and returned to Kampala
around December 1972 to pick up the reins of his businesses. Upon returning, he received
many threats from higher authorities. When these threats became personal, fearing for his
wife’s and his own safety, and with a heavy heart, he decided to finally leave the country overnight
via land crossing the border into Kenya.
1972-1994: Once having returned to the UK, Mohamed Hussein changed his line of
business and got involved in the real estate market with which he had some experience. In
1974 he purchased a four-acre site in Greenford, for development into a residential apartment
complex. Three years later, when his eldest son Salim had joined him, they acquired a fiveacre site in Wembley, the heart of the East African Asian community in London -consisting of over 50 houses, multiple shops and a large cinema hall. The property later became a major redevelopment site with mixed-use residential townhouses and a modern retail plaza fronting Ealing Road. Interestingly, when the London community was in the process of acquiring the Stanmore site for our current mosque, the Cinema hall with its 1,700-seat capacity was utilized for the commemoration of Moharram majlises jointly by our jamaat and the Muhammadi Trust, accommodating well over 3,000 people for Azadari!
In 1982, Mohamed Hussein was taken up with the idea of discovering his family’s roots in India, and that sentimental trip soon resulted in the start of joint venture projects with local Indian partners. One was development of the drive-in cinema near the International Airport in Mumbai, and another project, a more ambitious galvanized iron sheets plant in Kashmir. His family as NRI’s (Non-Resident Indians), with their local partners, the Moloobhoy family, floated their company on the BSE in 1987. Mohamed Hussein Bhai’s son Gulam moved to India to look after the project. Within a year of production, they had secured an 80% market penetration, but within another year it had closed down due to political problems between the separatist movement in J&K and the Indian government.
In 1989, the family moved to Toronto, Canada. By this time, his younger sons Minaz and Shafiq had joined the family business after completion of their studies.
They went back to their business roots, acquiring the Canadian master franchise rights for Dollar Rent A-Car, which until then was the only major US car rental company without a presence in Canada. Starting with a fleet of 20 vehicles, within just
four years they expanded the business to well over 3,000 vehicles in 18 corporate and franchised
locations.
1995-2000: A new era started in 1994 when President Museveni invited all departed Asians to come back and help rebuild Uganda. Mohamed Hussein was keenly following the repossession process in Uganda and his sons Gulam and Minaz had in fact initiated their process when he decided to go to Kampala to look things over for himself. He went straight from the airport to the showroom property. Tears flowed in his eyes – the premises were in such shambles that he kept thinking to himself that had re-inherited only its “four walls”. He decided there and then to refurbish it to its former glory!
The family obtained a Nissan dealership and they soon became the one of the largest automobile
dealers in Uganda again. Salim and Shafiq, who currently manage the business, have now moved
on to become the sole distributors for the Russian-made URAL heavy-duty trucks for the East
African region, including Rwanda, Burundi, the DRC, and Southern Sudan.
These six year were the most memorable years for Mohamed Hussein Bhai as he had returned to
Uganda after a good 23 years! It was indeed ecstatic meeting all his “old friends and
comrades” who had also returned back during this time. He enjoyed working with them once again both on a community level as well as in business. There were lots of pleasant moments meeting once again friends like, Br Gulam Jamaal, Hassan Alibhai, Mohamed Manji, late Ebrahim Bhai Kassam, late Pyarali Khimji, younger and dynamic members like Shabir Najafi and Mahmud Bharwani and also new comers, like Dr Moledina, and Br Mustafa Kanji. The tough experience was that most of all our Jamaat’s properties were allocated by Idi Amin to “Uganda Muslim Supreme Council” UMS a local African Muslim organization. Hence, the members were using the small place available at the Kabrestan for majlises and Friday prayers etc. till such time that Jamaat managed to obtain all the properties back.
Since, his involvement in the real estate business in UK and Canada from the time he had left in 1972 to 1995, Mohamed Hussein was keen to utilise his experience, to see the Uganda Jamaat’s 20 or so properties scattered between Kampala, Jinja, Mbale, Soroti, Fort Portal, Hoima, Arua, Masindi,
Kabiramaido and Ngora which were expropriated, to be returned back to the Jamaat.
Mohamed Hussein was appointed Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Kampala Jamaat and
along with his mentors, late Ebrahim Bhai Kassam, late Habib Bhai Walji and others, they jointly
started working on the task of confronting the UMS. One can only imagine, how to difficult a
task it would have been to extract occupiers who had enjoyed a free ride for 23 years. With the
strong support of Br Shabir Najafi and with their mutual contacts on ministerial and police
levels, they managed to successfully complete their repossession task, often receiving life
threats from those occupiers. Al’Hamdulillah, through sheer perseverance, they managed to
repossess all those properties and later with the participation of Shabir Najafi, Mahmud Bharwani and other like minded members, they undertook the task of refurbishing and redeveloping most of the properties turning them into income producing assets for the benefit of the community. As a result, our Uganda Jamaat has become one of the richest per capita community in Africa!
2000-present: Due to lack of medical facilities, and after having spent six years back on the African
continent, Mohamed Hussein left Uganda in the year 2000 to resettle back in Toronto, Canada, whereby with the grace of God, he was blessed to be involved back in our community and achieved even more success in business and in serving the community once again.
At the community level, the Toronto Jamaat had successfully managed to acquire a sizeable piece of land where one of largest community complex in North America of some 165,000 sq ft. was eventually built. Mohamed Hussein Bhai and family have contributed both financially and through personal involvement sharing their vast experience in the property development field by joining as committee members of the Jaffari Community Centre in Toronto and with his son Shafiq Punjani holding the post of Chairmanship of the Building Committee at the Jaffari Complex.
Mohamed Hussein Bhai, carries on their family’s tradition of charity work through his registered family charities, the Punjani Charitable Trust in the UK and the MP Charitable Foundation in Canada. Some of the projects which they have sponsored include an orphanage and two schools in Uganda; medical care through the Lion’s Club for Tanzanian children who were sent to India for heart operations cosponsored with Dr.Riyaz Hassanali from the USA; shelter and housing in Pakistan; and construction and support of places of worship, schools, community centres and hospitals in various parts of the world… At a fundraising event held by their family, they managed to raise over $100,000 for the Scarborough Hospital, where Shafiq Punjani is on the Foundation Board. With the whole-hearted support of his family, his vision is that such charitable work will increase in his lifetime and achieve even greater heights in the next generation and for posterit