Who was Pakistan's 'Gold King' Seth Abid? | Some Situations and Events Related To The Life Of Seth Abid

In April 1958, a passenger going to Lahore was stopped at Karachi Airport and 3100 tolas of gold were recovered from him. When the Karachi Customs officials said in the press handout that they had seized 2000 tolas of gold, the passenger in police custody corrected them that it was not 2000 tolas but 3100 tolas of gold.

The man was soon released from jail and appeared only five months later in a border village near Kasur where he had to escape leaving behind 45 gold bricks to avoid the Amritsar police. Six years later, the man resurfaced to evade arrest by the Delhi Police, when he was making a gold deal with a merchant at Moti Bazaar in Chandni Chowk.

The man managed to escape from the police but one of his accomplices was caught and the police also recovered 44 gold bricks from him.

A newspaper from Lahore in 1977 described the man as "the golden fugitive, an extraordinary person, Master of disguise and cunning as a fox".

The man's name was on Pakistan and Interpol's list and used to travel frequently to Delhi, Dubai, and London. And this person was none other than "Seth Abid".

Seth Abid, who has died aged 85, was also known as the 'Gold King' in Pakistan and was considered one of the richest men whose fortunes depended on gold smuggling.

To become the king of gold in the smuggling business, one has to establish networks across borders and establish relationships with state elites and government officials.  Apart from this, to establish one's position in society, one has to establish a wide network of goodwill on moral grounds.

Seth Abid's rise coincided with the creation of the border between Pakistan and India.

He was born and raised in the border region of Kasur, where members of his Shaikh trading clan traded leather from Calcutta before the partition of India.

Seth Abid moved to Karachi in 1950 when his father started a gold and silver business in Sarafa Bazar, Karachi. After meeting some fishermen who used to smuggle gold from Dubai to Karachi, Seth Abid entered the world of gold smuggling.

By the end of the 50s, he along with a fisherman 'Qasim Bhatti' established a monopoly in gold smuggling in Pakistan.

Prime Minister Imran Khan also condoled Seth Abid's death with his family and mentioned his donations to Shaukat Khanum.

Seth Abid is one of the smugglers who were very important in the gold smuggling and smuggling economy in the Pakistani context.

His power was present in Karachi port, Punjab border, government administration, and political circles, but he could do many things on the other side of the border and beyond.

With interim contacts in London, Delhi, and Dubai, Seth Abid broke India's monopoly on gold smuggling from the 1950s to the 1980s.

Seth Abid had acquired all these skills by the late 1950s, when his smuggling ring attracted the attention of agents in London, Delhi, and Karachi, and spread to the border areas of Punjab between Pakistan and India.

Initially, this system consisted of a network of close relatives. His brother Haji Ashraf, who spoke fluent Arabic, lived in Dubai, while his son-in-law Ghulam Sarwar visited Delhi frequently and met gold smuggler Harbans Lal.

Seth Abid's name first appeared in the Indian press when the Times of India reported in 1963 that Pakistan's 'gold king' had 'connections' in India while his brother-in-law was found in Delhi with 44 gold bricks. Has been arrested.

Charles Maloney, who worked at British Airways, was appointed as Seth Abid's 'facilitator' in the UK. Seth Abid would also go on the Hajj every year and along with this, he would improve his relations with the Arab Sheikh operators.

As his smuggling business expanded further, he granted a gold smuggling franchise to some agents living in the border villages of Punjab, prominently the people of the Gharki Dayal and Awan communities.

Seth Abid had dozens of rivals, but none had the skills, connections, and capital to match him. Unlike many of his rivals, Seth was never charged during his long career despite several FIRs being registered against him.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Seth Abid's smuggling business flourished around the world, sometimes with state patronage, and his investments and assets in Lahore, Karachi, Dubai, and London made him one of Pakistan's most powerful criminals. Added to the more wealthy people.

Seth Abid's extensive smuggling operations in the 1970s also faced some setbacks during Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's regime and some of his assets were seized.

In the year 1974, something happened that no one had thought of. Pakistani currency worth around 12.5 million was recovered in a major police raid at Seth Abid's residence in Lahore city. Along with this, four million worth of gold, and two million worth of Swiss watches were also seized. In this raid, Lahore Police also seized three vehicles and a dozen horses which were used to transport illegal goods.

Newspapers headlined the news as: 'The biggest smuggling case in Pakistan's history' and 'Pakistan's Gold King', Seth Abid, was accused of involvement in global smuggling operations.

Prime Minister Bhutto set up a special tribunal for the 'Seth Abid International Smuggling Case'. The tribunal recorded the statements of dozens of witnesses, but despite several warnings, Seth Abid did not appear before the tribunal.

The issue of Seth's arrest not only became part of the daily conversation of Pakistanis but also became a test case of state writ for the Bhutto government.

In Pakistan, the biggest operation in the country's history was launched to find the 'most wanted person', in which raid teams of the Pakistan Army, Police, Rangers, and Naval Guard were formed.

Seth Abid's residence in Karachi was also raided from where a large amount of foreign currency and gold bars were recovered. In 1977, when the Karachi Coast Guard received a tip-off that Seth Abid was coming to North Nazimabad to meet his 'girlfriend', a raid was conducted there too, but Seth Abid had already escaped from there.

In September 1977, Seth Abid 'voluntarily' surrendered to Zia's military government and negotiated the return of his confiscated assets.

In December this year, the military government press reported that Seth gave a huge grant of Rs 151,000 to Lt Gen Jahanzeb Arbab for the construction project of Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Center Hospital (JPMC) and the burn ward of Abbasi Shaheed Hospital. Is.

Seth was no longer a business criminal but a committed 'patriot', donating generously for the good of the state and society.

His fame further increased when his name also came up in the country's 'nuclear program'.

The 'Seth Abid International Smuggling Case' was debated in the Parliament of Pakistan in 1985-86 and thereafter the Special Committee of the National Assembly (SCNA) headed by Chaudhry Nisar Ali took up the case. In 1986, the Pakistan Central Board of Revenue allowed the return of 3,100 tolas of gold, which was seized from Seth Abid at Karachi Airport by customs officials in 1958.

Historians have criticized Eric Hobbsbaum's term 'social bandit' ever since he argued that few individuals in the history of crime could be more than criminals as civic heroes.

In the Pakistani context, Seth Abid is widely recognized as the man who transformed the status of a smuggler into an urban legend by assisting in the development of Pakistan's 'nuclear program'.

Apart from establishing philanthropic institutions like the Hamza Foundation for the welfare of deaf and dumb children, Seth Abid also provided financial assistance to charitable institutions, including the Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital in Lahore.

Although Seth avoided publicity throughout his life, he still found fame. His name became nationally known when he bought cricketer Javed Miandad's Sharjah innings jersey for his son for five lacks during an auction on a TV show.

Apart from establishing philanthropic institutions like the Hamza Foundation for the welfare of deaf and dumb children, Seth Abid provided financial support to charitable institutions including the Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital in Lahore.

In his later life, his criminal activities did not make the headlines of the newspapers, but he again made headlines due to the murder of his son Seth Hafiz Ayaz Ahmed in the Airline Housing Society owned by him in Lahore.

No one in Pakistan accumulated capital through illegal means like Seth Abid in the early part of the country's history.

He had many roles during his illegal trading career: smuggler, gold trader, stock market exchanger, philanthropist, and above all, a real estate giant.

By the 1990s, he had emerged as the city's most resourceful property developer, owning vast properties in various locations in Lahore.

He also owned several properties in Karachi and after being named in the Panama Leaks, he shifted his assets to the British Virgin Islands.

There are many stories about his exploits in the world of smuggling. Newspapers, popular accounts, and even social media today romanticize Seth Abid and talk about his escapism and glamorous life.

When the newspapers portrayed him as 'the notorious Pakistani gold smuggler', Seth protested and presented himself as one of the people who made gold accessible to the common man. delivered

Explaining his vision of border operations to the world, Seth Abid told a Lahore newspaper editor: 'Why am I called a notorious gold smuggler? I am providing cheap gold for my sisters and daughters' weddings. I am doing good service for society and the state. Instead of any praise and recognition, I have become infamous.

Seth Abid is now dead but his personality may live on in many forms and senses in the days to come.

The information contained in this article has been obtained from various sources such as books, trusted websites of the world, etc.!?