21/09/2025
MY STORY: ABUSE OF POWER WORKING IN PAKISTAN
[I was found guilty of cybercrimes for publishing this article & it is blocked in Pakistan -- so I'm posting it here]
Since 9/11, Iām the foreigner to explore Balochistan, Pakistan the longest, 50+ days across 10 districts in 2021 (+ 20 days in 2024 = 72 days total). Travelling there was the most fun Iād had in decades and the closest I felt to a proper explorer since the 90s when I solo road-tripped places like Mexico and Bosnia. I shared about 25 YouTube videos showcasing Balochistan, gave a speech about Balochistan at the 2021 Islamabad Tourism Forum, and promoted its beauty to anyone who would listen. Itās a breathtaking region with kind and gracious people who did not choose to live in an area of unrest or unparalleled corruption.
After leaving in 2021, I felt a daily pull back to Balochistan. I saved up money for two years in Malaysia with my branding and marcom startup company and, in February 2024, returned to Pakistan with the goal to grow awareness and demand for tourism in Balochistan. I established a Pakistan branch of my company in Islamabad, which is also where I set up my home and office.
Things moved quickly. I created new tours to Balochistan that were promoted via a reputable local travel company. At a meeting in Quetta, I gained approval by now-ex-Additional Chief Secretary Zahid Saleem at Balochistan Home Department to develop tourism in two districts in Balochistan that had never had tours created or marketed for them ā Noshki and Jhal Magsi.
In May, I gained approval by the Managing Director of Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) to rebrand Balochistan Tourism (new website, logo, and social media targeted to foreigners). The only requirement from PTDC was that the project be funded through Balochistanās budget.
In my quest to gain that funding (Rs1.1M / US$3,800 to start + Rs210k / US$730 monthly) from the government of Balochistan because PTDC didnāt have a proper budget in 2024, I faced a litany of challenges.
Since 1996, Iāve had the same career and worked in eight countries. Yet NOTHING prepared me for the lies, attempts to extort me for s*x, almost being r***d, and the abuse of power that I was about to experience ā all exclusively by men and women in government (please note: NEVER from anyone at PTDC, Balochistan Home Department, Levies, Police, ATF, or Quetta city administration).
Abuse of power is a problem worldwide, itās not a Pakistani thing. What makes Pakistan unique is the systemic pattern of abuse that is accepted (and expected!) ā¦ and how some men & women in power cover it up for one another.
WHY IāM WRITING THIS
The reason I am sharing my story is singular: I learned the man who tried to r**e me has allegedly r***d local women in Quetta and Islamabad, is a known trafficker (going back 15 years!), he tricks women out of money with ālove scams,ā and he pimps women to parties attended by wealthy or high-ranking military / political figures in Pakistan. Two high-profile men in government in Quetta whom I trust each had personal knowledge of reports filed against Fawad but each time he called in favours and had all evidence of his past cases and police reports destroyed. His victims will never receive justice because the women heās hurt can not come forward without fearing for their safety or bringing shame to their families.
But I can. So this is my story.
ATTEMPTED R**E
On April 3, 2024, following a meeting with a Member of the Provincial Assembly of Balochistan, Farah Azeem Shah (MPA), I was sat working in the lobby of the Quetta Serena Hotel. Syed Shahnawaz / Shahnawaz Fawad Afridi came up and introduced himself as a Coordinator to CM Bugti, passing me his business card that I later discovered was fake.
He asked why I was there and I told him about my PTDC-approved project. He told me something I will never forget: āIām here to make money, I donāt care about anything else,ā which was the OPPOSITE to what my feelings were. I wanted to help Baloch people in rural areas. I was spending my own money self-funding my company as I tried to secure funding for my project and build up my client base.
That afternoon he sent a video of himself with ex-CM Bizenjo in a private plane, shared pics of guns & alcohol, and we had a fun chat. I love cocktails so for me I felt he was someone I would get on with. He said he could help secure the funding but his CONDITION for helping me was that I never mention his name.
I didnāt know him or trust him, though, so I asked 2 people I trusted at the time if they knew him, a male politician and the female MPA Farah. My male friend said 100% donāt trust him and the female MPA wrote āu r in safe hands with Fawadā. Then she immediately contacted Fawad to ask about me.
That night Fawad messaged me saying he learned I asked the MPA about him, which he told me was forbidden. He said to never contact him again.
In May, Farah agreed to fund my project through her budget. For two months she promised that the funds were coming ānext week, dearā but eventually I realised the funding was never real.
On July 13, 2024, I contacted Fawad, still believing he was CM Bugtiās Coordinator and could help greenlight my project. He asked how much money I had in the bank and I told him (not a lot), so he said he was going to send his secretary to drop off an envelope so Iād have some cash ājust in case.ā I assumed it was an advance payment from CM Bugtiās office or some other government entity. It was not.
Later I realised he was paying me as if I were a pr******te. I sent him my address at One Constitution Avenue in Islamabad and his secretary dropped off an envelope with Rs50,000 (US$175) at 5pm.
We agreed to have my pitch meeting at the Islamabad Serena Hotel lobby the next day but he called 2 hours later and said his plans had changed and he only had 5 minutes that evening so he would come hear my project pitch quickly. My business partner for the Balochistan tours was at my apartment for a meeting, which I told to Fawad. He said he didnāt have time for the formality of a group meeting and to ask him to leave so I did.
Syed Shahnawaz / Shahnawaz Fawad Afridi arrived at 20:56 and asked for a tour. In my bedroom he asked me to turn on AC, which I thought was strange and just said āno no, weāll meet in my living roomā. He instantly took my hand in his and said that he hoped I understood things work differently in Balochistan and that I needed a man to fund my life. I still stupidly thought I was there to pitch for funding and had my laptop. He suggested we go sit on my bed. Again, I said no. We sat on the sofa and he started kissing me.
Iāve never dealt with this before but now fully understand how women are blamed as being complicit. In that moment of shock and disbelief, it felt safest for me to give in a little and then move, sit away from him or stand with the ottoman between us. As weak as this sounds, I didnāt want to offend him or bruise his ego. I fully believed he was in a position of power with CM Bugti and I needed him to approve my project.
Then, it was a nightmare.
Over the course of 35 minutes, he pinned me against a wall twice, exposed his p***s and tried to push my head down onto it, he shoved his hand down my bra and cupped my breast, kissed me multiple times. At every moment, I pushed him off, distanced myself, tried to get back to showing my project presentation, and said NO.
NO NO NO over and over again.
When I finally got him out the door, he put his shoe in the door frame to stop it from closing and pushed back in. That was the first time I went from being very annoyed to being TERRIFIED AND SCARED.
After he left I made 2 calls: to a trusted friend in Pakistan and then to my mother for 3 hours. She was so upset to hear what had happened in my pursuit of getting that project funded that she offered to fund it for Balochistan (which of course a foreigner couldnāt do but was sweet nonetheless)!
He dangled the funding for my passion project over my head, asking me a few hours after the attack to send the financials from my project. I played nice, still in shock but also trying to not hurt his ego or make an enemy. I still fully believed he could fund my project.
I told him how he made me feel, like a pr******te and cheap. I received this ADMISSION OF GUILT from him that acknowledges the attempted r**e: āI obey what u said yesterday I didnāt f**k uā (see screengrab: 14 July 2024, 23:45).
In the months that followed he gaslit me, convinced me I misunderstood his advances. He pursued me ā¦ even stalked me to Toni&Guy Islamabad once when I was having my hair done. The team at Toni&Guy believed him to be a high ranking police officer.
I told him I needed time to get over the shock (āgive me a few monthsā I would say), but I could imagine meeting up with him again, just in public. Over months, he messaged and called dozens and dozens of times asking to get together.
The only time I met Syed Shahnawaz / Shahnawaz Fawad Afridi again was August 31st. He said he had a serious project he wanted me to work on at RIMS HOSPITAL INTERNATIONAL (Jinnah Road, Blue Area Islamabad). I thought they were looking for a brand manager. They werenāt and it wasnāt a project, he lied. In a boardroom, he tried to impress me by having me meet the top physicians and hospital administrators ā and I quickly learned they thought I was going to be an investor. All lies. I never saw him face-to-face again.
When he learned I filed a formal complaint to the CMās office on 20 June 2025, Fawad shared messages from me "out of context" from 4 months after the attack to the MPA Farah Azeem Shah, pretending they were from before the attack. He also lied to her & she believed him (like I sent n**es, which Iāve never done). Then he started sharing misleading messages. Things that only makes sense if you read the messages above and below because of my particular brand of sarcasm. Because of that, over a couple of weeks, the MPA told me I āasked for itā and I should be ashamed of myself and that I wasnāt a victim. She said I āshould be ashamed accusing an innocent manā.
THIS IS WHAT FARAH WROTE TO ME:
"According to screenshots I have When a lady share her n**e pics with a male and ask her to have s*x with her, itās not a r**e. I am a leader, a politician and public representative and cannot believe on a lady who doesnāt be ashamed to provoke a man for s*x and then accuse somebody for r**e. Its injustice."
Eventually I blocked him on WhatsApp. Iām grateful every day for my therapist Sam who helped me get over that. He has a sort of snake-charmer way about him that was a struggle to deal with.
Since filing the complaint with the CMās office, Fawad has done two things to scare and silence me:
1. On July 3, 2025, Syed Shahnawaz / Shahnawaz Fawad Afridi emailed a falsified cease and desist order. It was sent by a made-up/fake Pakistani lawyer, with Fawadās official email from his business card ccād. He threatened me to stay quiet, demanded an apology, and said that if I continued heād sue me for around US$150,000.
2. On July 12, 2025, he pretended to be the brother of a r**e victim on Facebook, asking for help to get justice for his sister. I realised quickly it was Fawad when he wrote, ādid you know you have 2 warrants for your arrest with the Quetta police by a secretary at BBoIT and some guy named Afridiā? The moment he typed that I blocked the account.
I sent screenshots of the chat to the Home Department, they confirmed it was fake.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I still find Pakistan one of the safest countries Iāve ever travelled to and with the most hospitable people. And while I would love to live in Pakistan and work in Balochistan again, my strategy for business would change. Starting with the fact that I would absolutely have a male assistant to act as both gatekeeper to my initial engagement with people but also to just get things done faster and without ā¦ all of the above.
~originally posted 14 July 2025
READ FULL STORY with details of 2 men who tried to extort me for s*x + links to all PDFs and more photos and screenshots:
- OUTSIDE PAKISTAN (the article has been censored by the government & I was found guilty of cybercrimes for speaking out so use a VPN inside if you can) https://pakistanabuseofpower.com/angela-carson-pakistan-abuse-story/
- IN PAKISTAN I uploaded a PDF copy to my Google Drive https://bit.ly/abuseofpowerbyangelacarson
UPDATE 16 JULY 2025
Fawad's victims are seeing my article and MESSAGING me. Iāve learned he has more than 1 type of victim but they are so terrified they wonāt make police complaints:
1) Itās confirmed he is a pimp & trafficker
2) He runs romance scams and cons women for money (apparently going back as far as 15 years or possibly more!).
3) One of his victims was a married woman who became pregnant and had twins
Syed Shahnawaz / Shahnawaz Fawad Afridi has never had his photo on the Internet so one thing I am proud about, beyond exposing him as a criminal, is that his name and photo are forever out there. Google doesnāt forget and I have posted his photo and all versions of his name on social media. I hope this follows him and protects women in the future who can now āgoogle himā and find this. Although knowing men like this, heāll change his name ā¦ so the cycle of abuse will never end unless the police and government step in now and do a proper investigation (which Iāve asked forā¦).
If you or anyone you know has been hurt by this or any other man, please file a report with the Women Police Station officers in your city.
