A Brief introduction:

How else it should be called when

• A sugar mill set up with tax payers money at an estimated cost of Rs 300 million is sold for a token price of Rupee one,

 

 

The government majority shares in Pakistan's biggest chain of hotels are dished out free to a social climber, by giving him a loan to facilitate the purchase and then writing it off,

A buisiness shark manages to secure 38 loans totalling Rs 3.5 billion through fake collaterals, escapes when found out and is living happily abroad,

An unknown entity is granted a loan of Rs 1.18 billion without any collaterals on telephone call from Islamabad and the banker who sanctioned the loan ends up as a federal minister, instead of ending up in prison,

• All five loans worth Rs 500 million of an enterprising buisinessman heading FPCCI- Committee for Revival of Sick Industrial Units are written off
• 12 foreign currency loans of an industrial tycoon , amounting to Rs 672 million are converted into a rupee loan and rescheduled so that repayments will start in year 2002 instead of 1990. When the matter is raised in Supreme Court, the tycoon who has expanded his business abroad is granted another loan to repay the rescheduled loan,
• 80 industrial units including 32 biggest set up by public and private sector in last 50 years are sold for a paltry amount of Rs10 billion. New owners are defaulting in the payments of Rs 4 billion to Privatisation Commission and liabilities of privatized units worth tens of billion Rupees in local and foreign currencies are being paid by government of Pakistan i.e taxpayers
• 1,500 individuals and firms make use of 80 % of total bank credits, Rs 130 billion are stuck up in bad loans and Rs 8.2 billion have been written off. While the public demands recovery of stuck up loans, the government has come out with schemes to reschedule the loans and grant new loans to the same defaulters.
• The common men bear the burden of 100 different taxes prevalent in the country but the super-rich are provided escape routes of exemptions and tax holidays, 180 of them in payment of income tax alone.

The House of Habib has about 90 units in its fold, Mian Mohammad Mansha is director on boards of 45 companies, Ittefaq controls at least 29 units, SadaruddinHashwani has 25 companies, Monnoos have 18 textile and sugar mills, Farooq Hassan of Hassan Associates lives in a house insured for 4 million dollars, the house built by Bashir Ahmad of Escort group over 40,000 square feet in Gulberg Lahore has a liberary custom made in London, Farida Saigol lives in a house sprawled over 68 Kanals of land in a posh locality, Seth Abid has invested Rs 5 billion in real estate in Lahore and his front men control Lahore Stock Exchange, Wedera Ghulam Mohammad Mehr owned 100,000 acres and Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi owns 80,000 acres.

It is these people, their like, Kith and Kin who own Pakistan, for whom the system works. Their true worth is not known even to government. My investigations have revealed that top 44 buisiness groups own assets worth Rs 500 billion or equal to the size of Pakistan's budget. YET THEY PAY MARGINAL INCOME TAX. In several cases no tax at all.

Table of Contents

Prologue

Robber Barrons of Pakistan