Who Owns Pakistan - Yimg

Haroon's great grandfather had migrated to Karachi in 1858 and entered sugar
and old clothing business in which they made big fortune in 1901. Sir Abdullah
Haroon was known as the Sugar King and his residence Seafield in Karachi
became the centre of Pakistan Movement in Sindh. At the time of his death in
1942, Sir Abdullah Haroon was known among the wealthiest families of the
subcontinent and his son Yusuf Haroon was Mayor of Karachi.
Because of their headstart in both business and politics, Memons emerged as
the most powerful of all the industrial groups in Pakistan between1947-71 and
Sergy Levin claimed that every fourth private factory in Pakistan in the 1960's
belonged to a Memon businessman. Lawrence White ranked Dawood as number
one among the top 22 families and his list included seven Memons among the
top 22 and 13 among the top 42 families in Pakistan.
Earlier we have stated that several leading families resorted to Double D
stratergy of Digging and Diversifying and covering their tracks in the post Bhutto
era. Several of the celebrated families of 1970, therefore are presently operating
in a very unobtrusive manner. It was during Bhutto era and immediately
afterward that a number of them carried out a division of assets. In many cases,
this division of assets resulted, as a stratergy rather than from family feuds.
The decline of Memon power can be judged from the fact that in 1970, Haroons
had 20 companies in their fold, Adamjee known as the Jute King had majority
shares in 30 companies, Bawany's controlled 20 companies, Valika had 20
companies, Dadabhoys 17, Jaffer Bros 17 and Karim 14 companies.
Today Rangoonwala-Bengali group, Haroon, Jaffer and Karim have one
company each listed on KSE and the number of Memons and their ranking
among the top 22 families has drastically gone down as compared to the 1970's.
In 1971 there were 13 Memons among the top 42 including Adamjee, Dawood,
Bawany, Gul Ahmad, Karim, Rangoonwala, Haroon, Hussain Ibrahim, Ghani,
Adam, Dada, Dadabhoy, Hasham but in 1995 their number among the top 45
has been reduced to seven i.e Dawood, Gul Ahmad, Bawany, Al-Noor, Fecto,
Tawakkal and Yunus Bros. Ten of the top Memon Groups from 1970's have
disappeared. Three among the survivors have drastically have drastically gone
down in ranking while four new Memons groups have joined the ranks. Dawood
on top in 1970 is now at number 8, Gul Ahmad at 9 and Bawany at 23.
Several leading Memons industrialists like Adamjee, Jaffer Bros and Fecto who
were in process of setting up fertilizer factories and tractor plants in the 1970 had
to abandon these because of the nationalization order. Investments by Memons
was switched off, as if the leaders of Memon community held a meeting and
decided to invest no more in Pakistan. The only projects of some industrial
consequence set up by the Memons during last 25 years are Poineer Cable by
Bawany and Pakistan-Synthetic by the Al-Karam group.
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