Who Owns Pakistan - Yimg

Lady luck smiled on the Sharif family when in late 1970's General Zia ul Haq
returned them Ittefaq foundry and Nawaz Sharif was appointed finance minister
in the Punjab cabinet. By that time the House of Ittefaq comprised of following
five enterprises.
1. Ittefaq Textile
2. Nawaz Shahbaz Enterprise
3. Jawaid-Pervaiz Enterprise
4. Ittefaq Brothers (Pvt) Ltd
5. Khalid Siraj Industries (Pvt) Ltd
New industrial units were set up with electrifying speed in the 1980's while
Nawaz Sharif was the finance minister and later chief minister of Punjab. Ittefaq
Sugar Mills was set up in 1982, Brothers steel in 1983, Brother's Textile Mills in
1986, Ittefaq Textile units in 2-3 in 1987, Khalid Siraj Textile Mills in 1988.
During first Benazir govt when Nawaz Sharif was the uncrowned King of the
powerful Punjab province, the group started work on Brothers Sugar Mills and
Ramzan Sugar Mills which turned out to be the last project set up under the
banner of Ittefaq. As soon as Nawaz Sharif became Prime Minister in 1990, Mian
Mohammad Sharif switched over to setting up projects independent of the other
partners, thus laying the grounds for split.
It was said that when Nawaz Sharif became prime minister, the group took a
decision to secure project loans from the foreign banks and only working capital
was taken from the nationalized commercial banks. The project financing from
foreign banks was ostensibly secured against the foreing currency deposits, a
number of which were held in benamee accounts, as repeatedly claimed by
Interior Minister Naseer Ullah Babar at his press conferences.
At a press conference in Islamabad, on August 3, 1989 Shahbaz Sharif was gave
the assets of the group at Rs 3.6 billion, but the report of the Cooperative Scam
Tribunal estimated the group assets in 1989, according to their own declaration
at Rs 6 billion.
In 1992 when Salman Taseer, Information Secretary, PPP released an account
of Nawaz govt's corruption in a booklet "The Plunder of Pakistan" a spokesman
of House of Ittefaq said in a counter statement that the group has incurred loans
worth Rs 4,420 million only from the commercial banks contrary to Salman
Taseer 's claim of Rs 12 billion. According to the spokesman, the group
comprised of only 14 companies in its fold with assets of 6 billion.
H U Beg Committee, set up by Nawaz govt in 1990 to investigate the allegations
of concentration of wealth had identified 19 companies in the House of Ittefaq
with assets worth Rs 10 billion and for the purpose of ranking in this book. I have
relied on the estimates of the H U Beg Committee. However at a press
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