The Soyem of Sayaid Mohammad Swaleh Naqvi, ex-President of former BCCI and founder member and co-chairman of Infaq Foundation, who passed away on 7th September 2019, was held here on Sunday.
After the Quran Khwani and soz, the gathering was addressed by Dr Allama Syed Ali Abbas Zaidi. Allama Zaidi elaborated the importance of preparing for the hereafter by helping those in need, such as widows and orphans and those who had fallen on hard times.
He highlighted the social works of Swaleh Naqvi and how he never turned away anyone who approached him for support and help.
Swaleh Naqvi was born in Agra in 1933 and migrated to Pakistan in 1947 with his family of parents and seven siblings, staying in a 2-bedroom quarters in PIB Colony in Karachi. He graduated from Govt College with BA in English and Economics and MA in Persian.
His first job was in Habib Bank Limited and then in Muslim Commercial Bank where he was posted to East Pakistan. In 1959 he joined United Bank Limited and eventually became head of East Pakistan Division.
He left UBL in 1972 as Senior Executive Vice President (SEVP) to help Agha Hassan Abedi in forming Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI). BCCI was the first multinational corporation from a developing country with 400 offices in 72 counties, employing over 14,000 people from many nationalities. It was only the second foreign bank to be allowed to open office in China, where it set up the first banking training centre for Chinese bankers in Shenzhen. Naqvi, along with his senior colleagues, managed the global operations of the bank.
In 1988, Abedi suffered a severe heart attack and underwent heart-transplant surgery which left him unable to speak and function. At the recommendation of the major shareholder of the bank, Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan al-Nahyan, Naqvi was given charge of becoming the CEO of BCCI.
After BCCI was shut down in 1991, he was forcibly taken to the US without any due process of law or the chance to independently legally defend himself..-PR