Who Owns Pakistan - Yimg

group but thanks largely to the alarm raised by the workers union and
intervention by President Farooq Leghari the deal did not go through.
After taking over the management of National Fibre, Schon applied to the
Corporate Law Authority (CLA) for the consent to issue shares in the stock
market for Rs 35 per share because the company was poised to launch a major
expansion programme of Rs 1,700 million. The permission was granted but
Karachi Stock Exchange took the plea that the share was overpriced and
therefore, the share price was reduced to Rs 26.50. The offer was
oversubscribed but on Dec 30,1992 the annual general meeting of the company
was called " to approve the management of surplus funds by Schon Management
(Pvt.) Limited, an associate company of the group". Both National Fibre and Pak-
China Fertilizer have been closed since their privatization.
Several cases were registered against members of the Schon group by the
caretaker govt. of Meraj Khalid and second Nawaz govt. However, the chairman
of the group Akhtar Hussain and his sons managed to escape and are currently
living in exile in United States. Under an agreement whose details have not been
revealed, despite questions in the Senate and National Assembly, shares of
Schon Bank and real estate of Schon Bank have been auctioned by the Ehtasab
Bureau for Rs 620 million. An additional amount of Rs 300 million was deposited
by the group with the Ehtasab Bureau. Several other properties including two
Rolls Royce cars, 12 aircrafts of Schon Air and a plot owned by the Schon
Refinery are proposed to be auctioned in near future.
A report in daily, the News, Islamabad March 27, 1998 said that Ehtasab Bureau
has released an amount of Rs 123 million to clear the outstanding payments to
the workers of Pak-China fertilizer and that factory would soon resume operation.
A clarification issued by the Ehtasab Bureau, as published in daily, The News,
Islamabad two days later said that Bureau had also provided Rs 150 million to
the Schon group to start the factory so that 600 factory workers can resume
employment. It was not clear as to how Schon group was allowed to continue
managing the factory while absconding from law. It was also not clear from the
report, from which account Senator Saif-ur-Rehman of Ehtasab Bureau had
released Rs 123 million for clearing the bills of Pak-China Fertilizer which for all
practical purpose is a private company and not owned by the government.
C: Sikandar Jatoi
Metropolitan Steel had an annual turnover of Rs 1,200 million and had
undergone an expansion with an investment of Rs 200 million on the eve of its
privatization in 1992. It was sold for Rs 66.67 million to Messers Sikandar Jatoi
and handed over after a down payment of Rs 30.7 million. The Privatizaton
Commission wrote out a checque of Rs 25 million to the new managenment as
government contribution for Golden Handshake which means that Sikandar Jatoi
walked away with Metropolitan Steel for a laughable Rs 5 million. Not a single
47