Safi Qureshey was one of the first Americans to have the ear of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in the critical days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Qureshey, a Pakistan native, co-founder of AST Research Inc. and prominent figure in the Southland’s Pakistani community, met face-to-face with Musharraf just four days after planes slammed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
“I spent almost an hour with President Musharraf on Sept. 15,” Qureshey said. “I was learning from him and seeing all the challenges he faced. I was encouraging him to take a very clear position.”
Qureshey, who has business ties to his homeland, landed in Pakistan on Sept. 11.
“We watched on CNN as we were collecting our baggage in Karachi,” he said. “It was very disturbing. And to realize the impact,it was almost unbelievable.”
Qureshey, chief executive of venture capital firm Irvine Ventures, was in Pakistan to visit the local operations of one of his portfolio companies, Irvine-based Awaz Networks Inc. The networking company counts about 100 workers in Pakistan.
“When I visit Islamabad, I try and stop by and see as many people I can see,” Qureshey said. “And since I know (President Musharraf), I place a courtesy call with him on a regular basis.”
Musharraf’s support of U.S. strikes against neighboring Afghanistan has proven critical. Despite protests from Muslim hard-liners, Musharraf has given the U.S. access to its airspace and ground facilities.
Qureshey praised Musharraf, who took over in a 1999 military coup, for his actions.
“I believe that in this kind of crisis, a weak civilian government would have vacillated,” he said.
Still, Qureshey said he laments that Pakistan again is being embroiled in the conflicts of its neighbor:
“Pakistan has been sort of sucked into this Afghanistan affair for 20 years. We have to look for what is right for Pakistan and do that.”
Qureshey said he visits Pakistan every three months or so.
“It is my proactive and humble way to contribute to Pakistan,” he said. “(Pakistanis) are very talented people and are looking for an opportunity. And, if they are given an opportunity, they can produce some very talented people and technology.”
Qureshey’s Pakistan ties extend here, too. As an individual investor, he has backed a newspaper, Irvine-based PakistanLink, which is dedicated to the U.S. Pakistani community.
The paper is a bilingual weekly published in English and Urdu, the language of Pakistan. In editorials, the paper has expressed support for the U.S. and Musharraf.
“The very first week (after the attack), the newspaper had some bold inserts about God Bless America,” Qureshey said. “For many ethnic stores, that insert became a foldout that they posted on their windows. We ran couple of full page ads in there to show our solidarity.”
Qureshey co-founded now-defunct Irvine computer maker AST research and later tried to save the doomed company. Besides running his venture firm, Qureshey takes an active role in the Pakistani, Muslim and local business communities.
Since 1997, he has served as the president of the Southern California chapter of The IndUS Entrepreneurs, or TiE, a network of mostly Indian and Pakistani entrepreneurs and professionals.
“My focus (in helping the ethnic community) is on the economic side. I feel much more comfortable working behind the scenes,” Qureshey said. “I am there to support. But the best way to support is to encourage the community to be engaged and be economically strong.”
Qureshey said that what is important now is for people to focus on their businesses and not on watching TV.
“One of the downside of (TV news) is that if you watch it too much, you go nuts because they are repeating the same thing. We need to focus on business and not on television,” he said.
The terrorists who crashed the planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon have cast a cloud over all Muslims, Qureshey said. This, despite that President Bush and other leaders have made efforts to distinguish between the terrorists and Muslims as a whole, he said.
While Muslims here have felt a backlash, Qureshey said the degree of which is far less than it would have been in any other country.
“I think it’s a normal stress, but I have to give a lot of credit to our establishment,” he said. “I know the Sheriff of Orange County. These guys have been extremely quick to manage any hate crimes. I can truly believe that if something like this happened in Japan or Germany, the backlash against whatever that community was perceived to be responsible would have been at least 10 times as much.” n
