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Bearing a smiling visage of the popular Karachi businessman and philanthropist Dinshaw B. Avari, the eight-rupee multicolored stamp admeasuring 50.5 x 35 mm was issued by Pakistan Post on his 28th death anniversary on December 18, 2016.  The commemorative stamp to honor Avari, designed by Adil Salahuddin, bears the words ‘Pakistan’ in English and Urdu, his name with the word "Philanthropist” under it, and his years of birth and death, 1902-1988, carried on the top left side. Two lakh stamps of Avari were printed, as per the salient features issued by the director general, Pakistan Post, Islamabad. He is the second Parsi to be depicted on a postal stamp by Pakistan, several decades after the first mayor of Karachi, Jamshed Mehta was so honored.
A self-made man who believed in "content with what I have but discontented with what I am,” with his progressive thinking Avari was constantly striving to expand his business empire and help the less fortunate. "Listen to all as everyone has something to contribute towards one’s development” was the advice he rendered to colleagues, as recalled at the special felicitation function on the occasion of his 85th birthday, a year prior to his demise.
Navsari born Avari had studied at the Petit orphanage and earned a BCom degree from the Bombay University. He started his life as a clerk and insurance agent for Sunlife Insurance Company of Canada from which he retired as general manager for Sindh, Balochistan, North West Frontier Province, Punjab and Afghanistan, according to a two-page note on Avari issued by Pakistan Post. He also became the first Chartered Life Underwriter in Asia. When he realized that being an Asian there was no scope for progress in his field, he invested his savings and borrowed money to purchase Bristol Hotel Karachi on the understanding that he and his wife Khorshed be trained in the business. "This remarkable ability of changing course at age 42…is a lesson in adapting to…multifarious circumstances,” stated the life profile.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Noticing the potential for first class hotels, he built Beach Luxury Hotel in Karachi on barren marshy grounds. The then governor of Sindh Sir Ghulam Hussain Hidayatullah reportedly advised Khorshed to get Dinshaw’s head examined for choosing such an area which subsequently came to be known as the upmarket New Queens Road (now M. T. Khan Road) and is currently considered a prime locality. From 35 rooms, the hotel grew to 150 rooms with banquet halls and swimming pool. When he introduced buffets in his hotel he was criticized for treating guests like dogs, making them stand and eat! Chinese food and Lebanese Shawarma, the Japanese restaurant, the first in the subcontinent, were novelties when he brought them to Karachi.  Avari Towers, the grand hotel that he built in Karachi in 1985, was his second venture but when he realized that room occupancy was falling, he developed plazas at the hotel to offer niche market space and earn a steady income. In Lahore, he opened the five star Lahore Hilton which in the year of his death was renamed Avari Lahore.
While expanding his hotel business and serving as founder president of the Hotels Association of Pakistan, he also set aside time for social and welfare activities. For his war efforts, he was decorated by the British Government. Chairman and trustee of the Karachi Parsi Anjuman Trust Funds, he was additionally trustee of several community institutions including the Bai Virbaiji Soparivala Parsi High School, Mama Parsi Girls School and Bomanshaw Minocher Homji Parsi General Hospital. He was a founder member of Rotary in Karachi, of the Deaf and Dumb Center, of the Pakistan Sea Scouts and supported the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Sind Red Cross as a member. As acknowledged by the Pakistan Post, "He never forgot the downtrodden and poor. His doors were open to all 24 hours a day… His legacy continues to this day, his principles…forming the foundation of the Avari family and group.”