By Sheni Humayun, [Islamabad, The Muslim in English, 7 Aug 91, p. 7]

The seizure of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) should not have come as a surprise. It is not only timely but should serve as a warning shot to the dynamic and ambitious Third World countries, especially Muslim, personalities who want to equal or surpass their Western counterparts in any field of activity. They must remain as an underdog. And subservient to the First World, otherwise...Such are the ground rules of the New World Order. It is time that we understand this brutal reality.

The alacrity and indecent haste with which the Bank of England acted on Friday, the 12th July, is understandable. The concerted action taken by banking regulators in Britain, Luxembourg, the United States, Switzerland, Spain, France, and Cayman Islands is unprecedented in banking history. But this had to be done before the leaders of the seven richest nations met in London. The thorn that was prickling the financial bastions of the Western world had to be removed once and for all. The Tower of London, which has been a scene of so many beheadings in British history, is the perfect setting for the G-7 [Group of Seven] luncheon to gloat over Mr. Major's major achievement of the decade--crucifixion of BCCI, a Third World financial institution that had rocked the very foundations of the Western fiance houses. Amen!

BCCI was founded 19 years ago, in 1972, by Mr. Agha Hasan Abedi, a Pakistani banker with a vision and dynamism. Its headquarters at London was established in the same building that was the seat of the British East India Company, the notorious business establishment that had paved the way for British rule over the Indo-Pakistan sub-continent, by treacherously overthrowing the Muslim Mughal kingdom.

Although the Western media is trumpeting charges of BCCI's illicit connections with the Arab shareholders, with such names being thrown as that of G.R. Pharon; forgetting the fact that BCCI was founded in a partnership with the Bank of America, with policy and operating control resting with Mr. Agha Hasan Abedi. Later on the Bank of America withdrew from the partnership, mainly because of BCCI's overshadowing it.

BCCI, in a short span, established its influence in Europe, the United States and the Third World countries. It has 350 branches worldwide with connections in about 70 countries. It was no mean feat by a person of Third World origin. FInancial wizards of the First World were awestruck.

Mr. Agha Hasan Abedi had decided to come to grips with the Western financial world, that had so far bled the Third World economies white (or red in financial jargon), on their own home turf and by adopting their own rules of the game. This was really too much to be swallowed. King Faisal and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had also paid the price for drumming the West in a political arena.

Mr. Abedi had become a legend, a folklore hero; for the modesty and a humanitarian approach to life. He was the benefactor of innumerable families, students and patients. He was not only a financial genius, he had other plans as well. He was creating a brain trust, a thinktank of intellectuals from the Third World countries. He was well above caste, creed and color prejudices. His dream was that the South should compete with the North. But dreams are not allowed to come true. Martin Luthor King, the Negro leader, lost his life for he had a dream in the white world.

Mr. Abedi was sought after by presidents, Sheikhs, industrialists, and those who had money, for financial advice. People listed in the international Who's Who accosted him at airports where he was in transit, to solicit his opinion in their investment portfolios.

He bailed out financially troubled Bert Lance, ex-Director of Budget of the United States and a close friend of former American President Jimmy Carter, by arranging the purchase of the National Bank of Georgia's shares by Arab investors. BCCI provided banking expertise and turned the Georgia bank into a strong, viable financial institution. In 1981, BCCI took control of Independence Bank of Encino, California and Centrust Savings and Loans of Miami. This is not a final list.

This was the period when the West was worried about the riches of Middle East oil barons and desperately wanted them to invest in the United States and Europe. All and sundry were on sale. One had to pay the price they were asking. Mr. Abedi brought the investments and arranged expertise so that his investors were not losers. Mr. Abedi had the Midas touch. His advice-oriented investments always yielded good profits.

The Western media has gone into a frenzy and is connecting all sorts of allegations against BCCI and its mentor. Even the Central Intelligence Agency of America, known for its undercover and illicit dealing and nurturing the present incumbent of the White House, is being linked with BCCI. The founding of BCCI is being termed as a conspiracy "to promote Arab interests in the United States presumably in hopes of influencing U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East," forgetting that there was a time when the West itself was ready to dance at the crooking of the little finger of the oil-rich Arab Sheikhs. Mr. Haig, the then-Secretary of State, was sacrificed at the altar of Arab wishes. And Mr. Shultz was brought in, because he was an "in man" in the Middle East due to his business connections with the Arabs.

Mr. Abedi has his weaknesses: he trusted everybody and he never developed a line of succession. Everybody looked towards him. It was a one-man operation--Mr. Abedi's. Unfortunately, his second-in-commands were people of low integrity, were ready to do anything for remaining in Mr. Abedi's good books. They were mediocre people, with no loyalty to their master, fighting with each other for their survival at all costs. Coming from nowhere, today they are multi-multi-millionaires; even ready to cooperate with the enemy--Bank of England.

Fate has, however, been kind to Agha Saheb. It is a blessing in disguise that in 1988 he suffered from two consecutive heart attacks, underwent a heart transplant and returned from London to Pakistan to rest and recuperate. His control over BCCI finished about three years ago.

The writing on the wall was clear when BCCI was implicated in the drug-laundering case in Tampa, Florida last year. It was not difficult to understand as to what the authors of the "New World" had decided to do with BCCI.

The United States troops had invaded Panama and her President Noriega, a CIA operative and close confidant of Mr. Bush was brought to America to face charges of involvement in drug dealings [sentence as published]. There were allegations of linkage between BCCI and Noriega and consequently, with Abedi.

Had Mr. Abedi been in good health and in effective control of BCCI now, who knows, they would have made him another Noriega. The damage Mr. Agha Hasan Abedi has done to the Western financial system, in understanding its intricacies and mysterious doings is really unpardonable from their point of view. How dare a Third World citizen single-handedly challenge the Western leadership by getting into their system. BCCI had grown like a cancer threatening the centuries-old deep-rooted foundations of Western mastery over the Third World countries, thus destroying their monopoly and their rich loot of underdeveloped nations.