Who Owns Pakistan - Yimg

specific tax holidays. It was not coincidence that House of Ittefaq was operating
five industrial units in the Chunian Industrial Estate.
According to the notification issued by the Punjab govt the estate was to be
developed on 60,466 acres of land, of which 55,000 acres was private and
balance was State land. In a departure from the established pattern it was
decided that govt will provide infrastructure and other facilities in the industrial
estate but the industrialists will be required to procure land directly from the land
owners in the area. According to the various press conferences by Salman
Taseer, then Information Secretary PPP and other opposition leaders at least
10% of the land in Chunian Industrial Estate had been bought by the members of
Sharif family prior to its declaration as an industrial estate.
In September 1989, Bhutto govt rescinded SRO/1/84 with retrospctive effect from
Chunian Industrial Estate meaning thereby that industries set up in the area after
1984, were no longer exempted from payment of income tax and other tax
concessions. CBR issued the new SRO as spinelessly and without any rigor of
conscience as the one that had provided exemptions with retrospective effect.
The Case of Import Duties on Steel
The see-sawing of import duties on Steel by Benazir and Nawaz govts also show
how unscrupulously the two employed to line personal pockets or tried to kill the
bird that was laying the golden eggs for the other.
The federal budget for 1986-87 annouced by Finanace Minister Dr Mahboob ul
Haq reduced the flat duty on imported Steel from Rs 750 per tonn to Rs 418 per
tonn, yielding net savings of Rs 200 million to Ittefaq Foundary but hardly hit ship
breaking industry for which the rate of duty remained at previous level.
However, July 1988-89 budget was announced by the PPP govt which imposed
a uniform rate of duty on ship plates and ingots but doubled the rate of duty for
billets used by Ittefaq Foundary, causing an annual loss of Rs 580 million to
Ittefaq.
In 1991-92 with Nawaz Sharif as Prime Minister, CBR issued SRO 584/91
reducing the custom duty on shredded and bundled scrap from Rs 1,500 to Rs
500 but the custom duty on ship breaking was reduced from Rs 1500 per tonn to
Rs 1000 only. This difference in custom duty inflicted death blow to the ship
breaking industry but yeilded Rs 1,024 million to Ittefaq Foundary, according to
Zahid Sarfraz, Chairman, Accountibilty Committee when Nawaz Sharif govt was
dismissed in April 1993 who also claimed that the said SRO was issued without
any lawful authority.
In this battle of SROs, ship breaking industry fell victim to Nawaz govt policies to
benefit Ittefaq Foundary and subsequently efforts was made by PPP govt to
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