Abrar's family originally belongs to Faisalabad, but they moved to Karachi while he was still young. He acquired his early education at Karachi. He studied at Cantt Public School Karachi up to 7th Class before joining Cadet College Petaro in 1971.

At Petaro, he excelled in gymnastics and became the Captain of the college Gymnastics team. He was also a member and colour holder of college football, basketball, swimming and sailing teams. During his last year, he was also the Chairman of Honour Committee. Petarians of his period remember him for taking the part of "Chote Mian" in a drama.

After leaving Petaro, he joined Pakistan Naval Academy in 1976 and was commissioned an officer in the Operations Branch in 1979. He became a member of the SSG immediately upon getting his commission and remained with the group until 1983. He was then moved to the submarine group. He remained a submariner until his premature retirement as a lieutenant commander in 1995.

He remained at Karachi throughout his naval career. He was Dy Director of the PN Tactical School. He served on board PNS Hangor and PNS Shushuk.

Abrar chose to take early retirement due to health issues. He suffered from hypertension which determined that his career with the navy would not go far.

After leaving Pakistan Navy, he moved to Abu Dhabi and joined the UAE Navy as an instructor from 1995-2004. He then moved to Canada in 2004 and settled down in Mississauga. He became a real estate broker and joined Century 21. At present he is the Manager of the Mississauga branch. He excelled in his performances and won Gold Awards for sales in 2009 and 2010, and as Successful Lister of the Year in 2010.

Since his move to Canada, he has been very active with Petarian activities in North America. He was the Chief Coordinator of PANA during 2009-2010.

Abrar has an amazingly amiable personality. And he has demonstrated time and again that he can be the best of mediators and bring people to realize that life is too short to have differences amongst each other.