Who Owns Pakistan - Yimg

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