SOHAIL is not the most talkative person; his words appear to be carefully chosen and punctuated with periods of silence. His wife Hina is more expressive, willing to share her opinion. They are the kind of people you want to spend an evening with, sharing conversation that traverses multiple topics, from mundane to more meaningful, from political to personal.

Often, in such settings, the stories we expect to share are unremarkable. They are based on what one has heard or seen: new information on the Panama Papers perhaps, or an act of senseless violence that occurred at a place occasionally or even frequently visited. It is rare to find people living normal lives who have been in the midst of events that are part of history, for their homes and families to have been disrupted by such events. So it came as a surprise to me when Sohail mentioned working at the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) for eight years, only to find himself broke and unemployed at the end of it.

Liquidated on July 5, 1991, this year marks the 25th anniversary of the BCCI scandal. It was the seventh largest bank in the world with approximately 30,000 employees and branches in 73 countries. The bank was declared insolvent and accused of major financial improprieties, including money laundering and harbouring funds for Saddam Hussein, Manuel Noreiga and the Medellin Cartel.

“I was at work that day when we heard the bank had been locked down,” he says recalling the fateful afternoon. “I was based in Turkey at the time and we heard that the branches in Luxembourg and London had been seized — it was all done very secretly.” He then adds that his personal bank account was with BCCI at Luxembourg, where he was stationed previously. “The pay came from London and went straight to Luxembourg. I only withdrew what we needed.” That day, Sohail learnt that not only had his job disappeared, but so had his life’s earnings.

“We had been married for four years,” Hina says “and everything had been provided by the bank, including our furniture; the liquidators took it all. We had to sell our car to buy the tickets back to Pakistan.” After learning he had lost his job, and his own account had been seized, Sohail called Hina: “The bank is finished,” he told her.” “What do you mean the bank is finished?” she retorted. “The cank is finished,” he responded cryptically. I ask her if Sohail told her about their own money being lost: “He didn’t have to, I understood that from what he said.”

After the call, Hina went to join Sohail. “All the wives came to the bank that day and everyone just talked,” she says. The atmosphere was one of reassurance with people telling each other that things were going to be fine. “People didn’t believe that such a large bank could be shut down,” she says. “We didn’t really know all the details at the time. More information came out the next day or on TV,” Sohail adds. At the end of a crisis that affected so many, people turned to each other for comfort. But soon after, they turned against one another.

In the aftermath of the liquidation, the bank’s Turkish employees began to view the Pakistanis with distrust. “They treated us differently because everyone knew it was a Pakistani bank and that the management was Pakistani.” For Sohail, this meant that finding another job in Turkey became extremely difficult. “It’s not that they said anything, but they looked at us and treated us differently,” says Hina. After searching for a job at other banks, and borrowing money from friends to make ends meet, Sohail and Hina eventually decided to return to Pakistan. Sohail would never work in banking again. “The name of BCCI was maligned and people who worked there were not trusted.”

The loss was not simply limited to the couple but affected the entire family. Sohail sent money home for his parents on a monthly basis and, on his behest, his brother-in-law invested heavily in BCCI. “I was not panicked when I got the news but when I got home that day I was shattered, less for my own loss and more for my brother-in-law who had invested his entire life savings.” Sohail blamed himself and took on a double burden. “He did not eat for the next two days and he would not talk to me,” Hina recalls.

For many Pakistanis who lived through this event, the whole affair reeked of a global conspiracy against a rapidly growing eastern bank. Time magazine even reported on the US government’s desire to cover up the scandal because of BCCI’s involvement in the CIA’s Iran-Contra affair. “Everyone was doing that stuff. It was nothing extraordinary. But only BCCI was shut down,” from his tone, you can tell it still stings. Hina agrees with this sentiment but chooses to reflect fondly on these years: “Despite all this, BCCI was a great employer and those four years in Turkey were wonderful. We still have many friends there.”

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2016