Anwar Pervez

Mohammed Anwar Pervez was born on 15 March 1935 to a subsistence farming family in Rawalpindi, then under British rule.[5] He did his matriculation in Pakistan. He studied at Forman Christian College. In 1951, he moved to the UK at the age of 16.[5][6]

His first job was as a telephone operator in the state-owned telecommunication company PTCL.[5] There he used to work for Rs. 96 a month and most of them were spent on anti-malaria medications.[7]

In 1951, he emigrated to England. There he became a bus conductor and driver in Bradford.[5] He worked seven days a week on double shifts for about £16-£18 a week.[5]

In 1963, he established his first convenience store, Kashmir, in London's Earls Court for the Muslim community.[5][8] By the early seventies, he had changed the company's name to Bestway and was operating ten convenience stores in and around West London, mostly serving Asians, and specialised in Asian food.[5][6]

In 1976, Pervez opened Bestway's first wholesale warehouse in Acton, West London.[6] The company has since grown to a multibillion-pound enterprise, and as of 2014 Bestway is the second-largest independent wholesaler in the UK.[9] In 2014, his group bought 774 pharmacies from The Co-operative Group for £620 million.[10]

He was married to second wife Sabiha Qasim with whom he had four children. A son from his first marriage and another from his second are directors of Bestway.[11][12]

In 2012, their daughter Farah married Syed Abid Hussain Imam, the son of Pakistani politicians Abida Hussain and Fakhar Imam. She lives in Lahore and is not involved in Bestway.[12]

Pervez was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1992[13] and a Knight Bachelor in 1999.[14]

In March 2000, he was awarded Hilal-i-Pakistan by the Pakistani Government for his services to Pakistan.[15]

• List of British Pakistanis

• Bestway