Hashim Elamin was the London-based father-in-law of Zeedan Nazir. A crooked, vicious restaurateur, he used acts of violence in revenge for slights and dishonours against his family, whilst all the time being utterly contemptuous of the law of the land. In the end, his intense drive proved to be his hubris.
Zeedan married his daughter Marrium in a ceremony in Alicante, Spain in April 2020, after meeting the girl when he moved to the capital from Weatherfield. He worked in the family restaurant utilising his skills as a chef to their benefit alone as Hashim viewed it very much as a family concern and paid no wages to his kith and kin, despite the long hours they worked. Zeedan quickly grew frustrated with being financially dependent on his new close-knit family, and also bored with being married to Marrium. He began an affair which Hashim found out about and in September 2021 Zeedan fled from his threats to kill him, after having taking £50,000 in instalments from the business over a period of time, viewing it as money legitimately owed to himself for his services. Finding out that the Nazir family business of Speed Daal was in serious difficulties due to his sister Alya falling for fraudsters, he put the £50,000 into it to rescue it from collapse.
In the first act of his revenge, Hashim sent his two utterly compliant sons north to administer a beating to their brother-in-law for leaving Marrium, which they happily did in the Victoria Street ginnel. Zeedan knew full well who had sent them, and under pressure informed his worried family of the truth of his extra-marital affair, but not the theft of the £50,000.
Finding out how much lighter his books were after checking the accounts, Hashim travelled up north himself and his son-in-law was taken aback to find him sat chatting happily to his gran Yasmeen Metcalfe in Speed Daal. She had been unable to attend the wedding, had never met Hashim, and was blissfully unaware who she was talking to as he posed as a friend of her grandson. Telling Zeedan he now knew about the missing money, Hashim quickly guessed that Yasmeen knew nothing about the theft and told him that he wanted the funds back by the end of the day, or Zeedan's beloved gran would find out what he had done. Knowing full well that Zeedan was incapable of returning the funds, Hashim had a ready plan which would benefit himself: he would write off the debt if in return Zeedan would launder his own illicit funds through the Speed Daal books in a blatant form of tax evasion. Zeedan had no option but to comply and took Hashim's advice as to how to carry out the process.
Zeedan took receipt of the money in cash, encountering various difficulties in carrying out the operation as his gran refused to relinquish control of the books, and Alya's former boyfriend Ryan Connor became suspicious as to what he was up to. Hashim grew impatient and turned up in the area again, pushing for quicker results than the slow, ponderous progress that Zeedan was making. Ryan witnessed a conversation between the two and stepped up his observation of Zeedan's movements, taking possession of Zeedan's holdall full of cash to provoke answers from him. He passed on to a furious Alya what he had found out and, although determined to involve the police, she realised the true extent of their troubles when Hashim came into the restaurant and pointed out that they would be very interested in how Zeedan had stolen £50,000 from him. He calmly told the pair that more money was coming their way to launder, and both Alya and Ryan attempted to help with ideas as to how they could speed up the transactions to get Hashim off their backs. One of these was a food van on the Victoria Street Christmas market, where the cash transactions could be inflated and augmented by Hashim's cash. Disaster struck though when the van was stolen with all of Hashim's cash hidden inside it. He again increased the pressure on Zeedan, this time by threatening to kill Yasmeen and Alya unless he had all of his money returned by the end of the day.
Ever resourceful, Hashim suggested that Zeedan torch the restaurant as an insurance job, unsympathetic to Zeedan's pleas that the family had built up the business from nothing. When Zeedan refused, Hashim insisted he comply, or the family home at 6 Coronation Street would be burnt down by his sons on his orders. Zeedan gave in, though former naval chef Stu Carpenter, inside the building making a trial meal on Yasmeen's orders pending his possible employment, almost died of smoke inhalation until rescued by Zeedan. Hashim was uncaring that a man had almost died but Zeedan glimpsed some good fortune when Debbie Webster, a bitter rival of Zeedan's restaurant, guiltily admitted to stealing the food van and handed it back. The cash was also safe within but Hashim upped the ante once more, insisting that he not only be handed over the cash, but also all of the insurance money.
By this time, the police had become suspicious that the fire was deliberate and took all the Nazir family in for questioning. Hashim called on the grandchildren at No.6, accusing them of informing the police themselves. Deciding that he had reached the end of the line with them, he was on the point of ringing his sons to tell them to carry out the severest retribution on them all when he began to suffer a heart attack, falling suddenly to the floor. Alya realised that with his death, all of their problems would be over and prevented Zeedan from summoning help. Hashim passed away on the living room floor. The resourceful Alya then planted a set of the restaurant keys in his car, staged a break-in at the house to convince DC Wallis that the man had come there to threaten Zeedan over the affair, and he helpfully mentioned that Hashim had intimated that he had been responsible for the fire. Following an investigation, Hashim's sons were arrested, and the Nazirs were able to use the insurance to reopen the restaurant.
List of appearances[]
2021