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Who Owns Pakistan - Yimg

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had opened their offices in Japan, Singapore and London, as early as 1920. The<br />

group currently has ten companies its fold including a private airline and is<br />

general sale agent for Uzbekistan Airline and is also sole agent for Ukraine<br />

Airways, Turkmenistan Airways, Kazakhstan Airways and Volga Dnepr. The<br />

group enjoys monopoly in barter trade with the former Soviet Union and its<br />

exports in 1992 were valued at 300 million dollars. It owns and operates a hotel<br />

in Tashkent, is setting up a garment factory in Uzbekistan and a cigarette factory<br />

in another Central Asia Republic. However, it does not have a single company<br />

listed on the Stock Exchange.<br />

Fazal (Fatima) group based in Multan is ranked at number 37 on the basis of five<br />

listed companies but comprises of 24 industrial units.<br />

The House of Habib is corporate enigma. As stated in last chapter, its Habib<br />

Bank had provided a loan of Rs 80 million to <strong>Pakistan</strong> govt. in 1947, <strong>Pakistan</strong>'s<br />

first industrial unit, Dentinic limited was launched by Habibs, none of its<br />

manufacturing units was lost in Bhutto's nationalization or seperation of East<br />

<strong>Pakistan</strong> and in 1984, it comprised 90 public and private limited companies.<br />

Judged by the yardstick of known assets, Habib group comes at number 7, even<br />

after Dewan and Saphire who were born as recently as 1970s and 1980s.<br />

Perhaps the low ranking of the House of Habib, dispropotionate to the image of<br />

the Habibians can be explained by an article in the Souvenir published on the<br />

occasion of 50 years of Habib Bank which had observed that Habibian make<br />

considerable effort to " hide the light under a bush, in the religious belief strongly<br />

held that to win the pleasure of Allah is worth infinitely more than to seek the<br />

plaudits of the public."<br />

Hashwani's Hashoo group is at 21 in the national ranking of the top 44<br />

companies but the assets acquired by the group during first two years of Bhutto<br />

govt. and the no of private and public companies in its fold tell another story. His<br />

catapulation under Benazir Bhutto is comparable to that of Mian Mohammad<br />

Mansha under Nawaz Sharif.<br />

Adamjee, one of the biggest names of the 1970s could not end up at the bottom<br />

of the 45 families. But has the group realy gone down, considering that it has 15<br />

private limited companies but only 4 listed companies in its fold? The group<br />

operates <strong>Pakistan</strong>'s biggest insurance companies with assets of over Rs 3 billion.<br />

Big and Beautiful - But looking Small and Ugly<br />

In addition to the top 22 families of the 1970 and 1990, there are several small<br />

groups who are rich and up to the hilt but have no or little presence on the stock<br />

exchange. They are like still waters that run deep, or icebergs with submerged<br />

tips. These groups include:<br />

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