In the early 1960s, he first started as one member of the music directors duo of Manzoor – Ashraf in the Pakistan film industry.
M. Ashraf first assisted his uncle (Mamu in Urdu language) music director Akhtar Hussain Akhian for five years.
Naheed Akhtar was introduced by him in film Nanha Farisha in 1974 with the song: "Janey kyun dil tarapta rehta hay, Aao jee addi tappa gaen".
[3][4] M Ashraf set new records in Pakistan (recorded thousands of film songs) working mainly with 5 major film playback singers of his time, namely with Noor Jehan, Mehdi Hassan, Naheed Akhtar, Masood Rana, and Ahmed Rushdi while also introducing new talent such as Ghulam Abbas, A. Nayyar, Alamgir, Mohammed Ali Shehki, Rajab Ali, Anwar Rafi and many other upcoming new artists of that era to the broader audience of movies and pop radio airplays.
[2][4][3] "He had the distinction of working with film directors such as S. Suleman, Nazrul Islam, M. Javed Fazil, Pervez Malik, Shamim Ara, Iqbal Akhtar, Jan Mohammad and Hasan Askari.