Who Owns Pakistan - Yimg

"activity of public sector prevents the concentration of economic
power in few hands and protects the small and medium
entrepreneurs from the clutches of giant enterprises and vested
interests".
Althouth the PPP manifesto have never considered the possibility of nationalizing
cotton, ginning, rice husking and flour mills, on July 1, 1976 government
nationaized 2815 cotton, ginning and rice husking units, creating administerative
nightmare and wide spread public resentment. The move was justified by the
need to eliminate middle men. It was said that the producer as well as
consumers of cotton, rice and wheat had been at the mercy of middle men
trading in the milling of these commodities, with the result that producers were
deprived of due share and consumer got poor quality and adulterated
commodities at much higher prices.
Another important step taken by Bhutto to discipline the corporate sector to start
work on new company law and test was assigned to Rahim jan, a Chartered
Accountant from Lahore. By the time Z A Bhutto was ousted in July 1977 the
draft of the company law was ready but Zia appointed a commettee headed by
Irtaza Husain to study the law which was promulgated only in 1984.
When Bhutto called elections in 1977 he had built a strong and sizeable public
sector with priority on cement, steel and fertilisers. It was on account of the great
importance attached to the fertiliser sector that Bhutto called upon a private
sector entrepreneur, Syed Babar Ali of Packages Ltd. to head National Fertilizer
Corporation (NFC). The NFC was a little more than a name when he assumed its
control but within a year he launched work on three new plants, i.e Pak-Arab
Fertilizer at Multan, Pak-Saudi Fertilizer at Mirpur Mithelo and Hazara Fertilizer
Complex at Haripur in the NWFP. It was also during the same period that work
started on Fauji Fertilizer at Got Machi, Rahim Yar Khan in Southern Punjab.
Not a single Fertilizer factory has been set up in post-Bhutto era but the projects
launched by his government were enough to meet the requirements for more
than a decade. Even today the fertilizer projects sanctioned by Zia continue to
face official procrastination because of strong importers lobby. A detailed report
about lobbies working against the phosphate fertilizer projects sanctioned during
Zia's era appeared in the daily, Business Recorder of Feb 4, 1994.
According to the report, these phoshate fertilizer projects namely Al-Noor
Fertilizer, Fauji-Jordan Fertilizer and Pak-Gul were approved in 1983 but failed to
make headway for want of protection against dumping. " Should the country
become self-sufficient or remain at the mercy of industrial giants was the main
question?" the report asked.
During Bhutto's era, work started on the much-cherished Pakistan Steel Mills, the
Heavy Foundary and Forge and several cement factories like D G Khan Cement,
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