Editing Abedi Agha Hasan (section)

==Founding of BCCI==
In 1972, following the nationalization of Pakistan’s banking sector under Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Abedi founded the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] (BCCI) in Luxembourg with an initial investment of $2.5 million, backed by Sheikh Zayed and other Middle Eastern investors primarily from Saudi Arabia, including the Bank of America as a major shareholder. Registered in Luxembourg and headquartered in London, BCCI grew from a modest two-room office into a global banking giant, operating in 72 countries with 16,000 employees and becoming the world’s seventh-largest private bank by the 1980s. Abedi’s reported vision was to create a bank that served developing nations, particularly in the Muslim world, as an alternative to Western-dominated financial institutions. However, his primary customer were intelligence agencies, weapons traffickers and drug traffickers. He promoted BCCI as a culturally sensitive bank, designing branches with lavish, Arab-inspired interiors to appeal to wealthy clients. Abedi was instrumental in recruiting Pakistanis into international banking, with nearly 80% of BCCI’s top executive positions held by Pakistanis, fostering a sense of national pride but also gaining a reputation for criminality. The bank was commonly referred to as the Bank of Crooks and Criminals.