Anwar Pervez

Mohammed Anwar Pervez was born on 15 March 1935 to a subsistence farming family in Rawalpindi.[4] He did his matriculation in Pakistan. In 1956, he moved to the UK at the age of 21.[4][5]

His first job was as a telephone operator in the state-owned telecommunication company PTCL.[4] There he used to work for ₨96 a month and most of them were spent on anti-malaria medications.[6]

In 1956, he emigrated to England. There he became a bus conductor and driver in Bradford.[4] He worked seven days a week on double shifts about GB£16 to GB£18 a week.[4]

In 1963 he established his first convenience store, Kashmir, in London's Earls Court for the Muslim community.[4][7] 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: spices, rice, lentils, and meat.[4][5]

In 1976, Pervez opened Bestway’s first wholesale warehouse in Acton, West London.[5] The company has since grown to a multibillion-pound enterprise, and as of 2014 Bestway is the second-largest independent wholesaler in the UK.[8]

He is married to Sabiha Qasim, and their sons Rizwan Pervez and Dawood Pervez (born February 1975) are directors of Bestway.[9][10]

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.[10]

Pervez was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1992[11] and a Knight Bachelor in 1999.[12]

In March 2000, he was awarded Hilal-i-Pakistan by the Pakistani Government for his services to the Pakistani nation.[13]

• List of British Pakistanis

• Bestway