Who Owns Pakistan - Yimg
Who Owns Pakistan - Yimg
Who Owns Pakistan - Yimg
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of deputy commissioner and superintendents of Police stopped short of Khan<br />
Garh of Ali Gohar Mehr "<br />
In August 1990, when Benazir govt was dismissed and replaced by caretaker<br />
govt of Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, a former Indian Ambassador S K Singh wrote in<br />
an article, reproduced by daily, The Nation, Islamabad that Jatoi was <strong>Pakistan</strong>'s<br />
biggest landowner owning 80,000 acres of land. I asked Singh at a meeting in<br />
New Delhi as to how he found out the size of Jatoi's holdings?<br />
" It was Jatoi who had told me " replied Singh.<br />
How Mehr and Jatoi could own tens of thousands of acres while agricultural<br />
reforms limited the land holdings to 150 acres is itself an interesting study for any<br />
enterprising journalist. But I can give a clue.<br />
After Benazir govt dismissal in August 1990, caretaker Interior Minister Zahid<br />
Sarfraz claimed at a press conference that Asif Zardari was a bigamist and was<br />
married to one Aruna before he married Benazir. To substantiate his claim, he<br />
distributed documents about a loan secured from Agricultural Development Bank<br />
of <strong>Pakistan</strong> (ADBP) by members of the Zardari family including Bilqis Sultana<br />
wife of Hakim Ali Zardari, daughter Azra Hakim Ali and one Aruna Asif Ali w/o<br />
Asif Ali Zardari. As expected, the claim was rediculed by Bhutto family but<br />
nobody cared to talk about the veracity of the documents, apparently because<br />
everybody was aware of the practice of land holdings in the name of non-existent<br />
wives and children.<br />
Benami Ownership<br />
Benami ownership or owning through proxy is <strong>Pakistan</strong>'s biggest problem today<br />
and unless this bull is seized by horns. no drive for resource mobilization or<br />
economic reform can succeed, since a big chunk of the real estate and<br />
<strong>Pakistan</strong>'s bubble economy is today owned by front men.<br />
Malik Naeem, Commerce Minister in first Nawaz cabinet, told a meeting of<br />
Financial Writers Association in Islamabad in January, 1993 that an individual<br />
(Seth Abid) had invested Rs 5 billion in real estate in Lahore but his name does<br />
not appear in any govt transactions or govt document. Seth Abid is not a member<br />
of Lahore Stock Exchange but his Abid group is controlling the exchange through<br />
25 members including his son and son-in-law.<br />
In fact, benami transactions have received stamp of approval from the court of<br />
Law, as the Commission of Inquiry into affairs of Mehran Bank scandal had<br />
observed " In our country benami transactions are common and have been<br />
recognised by the courts, and a seller of property sometimes does not know, nor<br />
is supposed to know who are real purchasers, so long as the price paid is fair<br />
and the transaction is fair" The Commission concluded.<br />
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