M. Ashraf was the most dominating and the most productive music director in Pakistan. He had the highest number of super hit film songs compared to any other music director in Pakistan. He composed approximately 2.800 films songs in more than 400 films in his 45 years long film career - only Wajahat Attre had more films (or songs) than M. Ashraf, but he mostly was known as Punjabi film music director and M. Ashraf was popular in both Urdu and Punjabi films.

M. Ashraf started his film career with his mate Manzoor (film Svera song tu jo nahin hay to kuchh bhi nahin hay... by S.B.John fame) in film Speran (1961) and his first song Chand sa Mukhra gora badan... was not only his first super hit song but also the first hit song of Ahmad Rushdi who was struggling since his debut in 1956.

M. Ashraf composed music with Manzoor in 28 films in the 1960's. After separation from Manzoor his first film as M. Ashraf was Sajda in 1967. In the 1970's he reached the peak of his film career and composed music for many big films. He continued his success march in the 1980s despite the downfall of Urdu films and a dominance of Punjabi films. In the 1990's he was blamed for piracy of old Pakistani and Indian songs and his answer was that to survive, it was necessary because it was a demand of film producers.

M. Ashraf got music lessons from his Nana (grand father who was Mamu (uncle) of Master Inayat Hussain). He assisted his uncle Akhtar Hussain Akhian (film Patey Khan fame) in five years. His son M. Arshad is also a well known music director and he was instructor for late musician Nazir Ali who assisted him in few films in the 1960's before becoming a top music director.

Numerous hit Bollywood songs were copied from M. Ashraf. For example, Police Public (1990) copied "Main Jis Din Bhula Doon" in Khushboo (1979), and Kal Ki Awaz (1992) copied "Kisi Meherban Ne Aa Ke" in Shama (1974). Laxmikant–Pyarelal's hit song "Choli Ke Peeche Kya Hai" in Khalnayak (1993) was copied from Ashraf's "Raat De Bara Baje" in Pakistani films Do Badan (1974) and Zabardast (1989). The song helped the Khalnayak soundtrack album sell 10 million copies, making it one of the best-selling Bollywood soundtrack albums. Nadeem–Shravan also copied "O Rabba" in Zamaana Deewana (1995) from Ashraf's "Chahe Duniya" in Naheed Akhtar's Naukar (1975). Numerous other hit Bollywood songs were also copied from M. Ashraf's music.

M. Ashraf passed away on February 4, 2007.

Even during M. Ashraf's lifetime and after his death, his son, M.Arshad has "emerged as a formidable musician" with hit films to his credit such as Bulandi (1990 film), Jeeva (1995 film), Dopatta Jal Raha Hai (1998 film), Jungle Queen (2000 film), Salakhain (2004 film). His two other sons are Nadeem Ashraf and Salman Ashraf. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.