THE humble roots and inauspicious beginnings of Sir Anwar Pervez and Lord Zameer Choudrey make their story and that of the spectacularly successful company they built from scratch as inspiring as it is compelling.

As Britain’s richest Pakistanis and most supportive of good causes, Sir Anwar, a former bus conductor and Lord Choudrey, who had not visited a city before leaving his Pakistani village for England, have long enjoyed the legend tag in the pantheon of British Asian business figures.

The tale of how more than 50 years ago these poor immigrants opened corner shops in London, then launched a cash and carry empire called Bestway that turned into an international conglomerate will be familiar to many. What makes its repeat so appealing is that there are always fresh instalments to hook in the reader.

It’s a long-running family business saga that just never seems to run out of steam.

In January 2020, for example, Zameer Choudrey, Sir Anwar’s nephew who has been involved in the business from its inception and is still the company’s chief executive, hit yet another personal milestone when he made his maiden speech in the House of Lords – fittingly during a debate on social mobility. Baron Choudrey of Barnet, as he is now formally known, spoke again in the upper chamber just weeks later – this time calling for financial protections for small businesses in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic. Wearing yet another of his non-Bestway hats in November 2020, Lord Choudrey, who is chairman of the Conservative Friends of Pakistan group, found the time to organise a seminar to commemorate on Remembrance Day the role of the one million soldiers from the area constituting Pakistan who contributed to the Allied war efforts in World War 1 and World War 2 At the