Meet Mr Pakistan
Mian Mansha: patriarch and perfectionist
Mian Mansha: building a business empire amid social and political turmoil
MCB partners with Maybank
Nishat's plans to list in London
Nishat: investing in Pakistan's infrastructure
Leadership at Nishat group
Decisive actions
Mansha is known to act as well as talk directly. Colleagues also point to his ruthless streak: an ability to quickly and decisively make key internal changes, even to the extent of infuriating Pakistan’s famously lethargic financial regulators. In May 2007, frustrated with the performance of the then-MCB chief executive and president, Muhammad Aftab Manzoor, who had been at the helm for seven years, Mansha acted swiftly. He fired Manzoor – according to one executive present "giving him 24 hours’ notice to pack his bags and leave".
Manzoor was replaced within days as president of the lender by the present chief executive, Bajwa, a respected but peripatetic banker who had lived in Dubai and eastern Europe, and had previously worked for Citi and ABN Amro, heading the former Dutch lender’s Pakistan operations. "There is a huge growth opportunity here in consumer banking," says Bajwa. "Consumer lending is just 5% of the banking sector loan area, and we believe that figure should be 50% to 60%."