Who Owns Pakistan - Yimg

fortunes which were multiplied, in most cases dubiously and unscrupulously. But
it appears that plucking fruits from the govt trees, rather than planting one's own
started immediately after the creation of Pakistan.
The Beginning
In December 1947, immediately after the birth of the new country, central
government convened an idustrial conference which recommended that centre
should plan the setting up of 27 most urgently needed industries. It was in the
light of the recommendations of this conference that Pakistan Industrial
Development Corporation (PIDC) was set up in 1950 to promote industry in fields
where private sector was reluctant to enter. It was decided that PIDC projects,
once they were ready to take off, will be handed over to private sector.
Saeed Shafqat in his book, Political system of Pakistan and Public policy, as well
as Lawrence White concluded that PIDC and Pakistan Industrial Credit and
Investment Corporation (PICIC) were instrumental in the creation of financial /
industrial groups that came to be known as the 22 families in the 1970s.
According to Lawrence White, top 43 groups over Karachi Stock Exchange
received 11 of 43 units divested by PIDC in East Pakistan and eight of 17 units in
West Pakistan. Several big units of these families like Karnaphuli Paper Mills and
Burewala Textile Mills of Dawood, Jauharabad Sugar Mills (Now Kohinoor Sugar
Mills) of Saigols, Karachi Gas Company of Fancy, Charsada Sugar Mills of Hoti,
Adamjee Chemical Works, Adamjee Industries, Adamjee High Grade Paper and
Board Mills, Nowshera and at least six Jute Mills were built by WPIDC and
divested in their favour. Habib Ullah Khattak of Bibojee claimed to have lost four
units in Bhutto's nationalization, all of them divested in his favour by PIDC.
Divestment of these units was never advertised and no account is available at
what terms and through which process they were sold to the new owners. But an
illusteration of the manner of their whimsical delivery to the private sector is
found in the biography of Ahmad Dawood. The biographer, Usman Umer
Batliwala has narrated how Ahmad Dawood was asked to take over the
management of a major unit from PIDC.
According to the Batliwala, Ahmad Dawood invited president Ayub Khan to
inaugurate a school set up by Ahmad Dawood at Jessore, in East Pakistan, in
1959. At the ceremony, Nawab of Kalabagh, Chairman, WPIDC was disturbed by
a report about the death of an official of Karnahuli Paper Mills in a clash between
management and the workers. The govt had already decided that the project will
be divested but no private sector enterpreneur was interested in taking over such
a big project, chronically ill and in a dismal financial shape.
After the ceremony, Nawab Kalabagh invited Ahmad Dawood to a meeting and
asked him to take over the paper mill. Initially Dawood refused but upon great
persuasion, promised to consider the proposal. After pondering over the proposal
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