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The BCCI's involvement in prostitution arose out of its creation of its
special protocol department in Pakistan to service the personal
requirements of the Al-Nahyan family of Abu Dhabi, and on an as-needed
basis, other BCCI VIPs, including the families of other Middle Eastern
rulers.
Several BCCI officers described the protocol department's handling of
prostitution to Senate investigators in private, and two -- Abdur Sakhia
and Nazir Chinoy -- confirmed their general knowledge of the practice in
testimony.
The prostitution handled by BCCI was carried over from practices
originally instituted by Abedi at the United Bank, when working with a
woman, Begum Asghari Rahim, he cemented his relationship with the Al-Nahyan
family through providing them with Pakistani prostitutes.
Among BCCI bank officials in Pakistan, Begum Rahim was reputed to have in
United Bank first won the favors or attention of the royal family by
arranging to get virgin women from the villages from the ages of 16 to 20.
Rahim would make payments to their families, take the teenaged girls into
the cities, and there taught them how to dress and how to act, including
the correct mannerisms.
The women would be then brought to the Abu Dhabi princes. For years, Rahim
would take 50-60 of these girls at a time to large department stores in
Lahore and Karachi to get them outfitted for clothes. Given the size of
Rahim's retinue and her spending habits -- $100,000 at a time was not
unusual when she was engaged in outfitting her charges -- her activities
became notorious in the Pakistani community generally, and there was
substantial competition among clothiers and jewelers for her business.
According to one U.S. investigator with substantial knowledge of BCCI's
activities, some BCCI officials have acknowledged that some of the females
provided some members of the Al-Nahyan family were young girls who had not
yet reached puberty, and in certain cases, were physically injured by the
experience. The official said that former BCCI officials had told him that
BCCI also provided males to homosexual VIPs.
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