Posts tagged politics

Assets details are mostly of 2007

Short-listing Pakistan’s most influential business magnates or Groups has
never been an easy task because there are the people who have been very
powerful in nearly every regime that has held this country’s reins since the
last 60 years and then we have had those seasonal species that manoeuvred
their voice to be heard better than most within the power corridors, but
later vanished into the oblivion for one reason or the other. We have
selected only those tycoons who have made their presence felt for a better
part of country’s history, have earned consistently, have been setting up
units at regular intervals or have been legends in stocks, currency or real
estate business.

The list excludes many names that have previously qualified and all of Pakistan’s most prominent feudal land lords who would definitely make it to the top 10, expect the few land owners which have declared their assets and work force and registered with the CBR Islamabad. In order to promote the new and “unknown” Pakistani magnates we have excluded in previous entities.

Unfortunately, our extensive research does not currently include the names of a few stars that shone brightly amidst the galaxy of the influential creed of yesteryear like
C.M.Latif of BECO- the Steel Man of Pakistan- who did make a lot of name
once, but then got gifted with contentment somehow, although the late
business wizard got very badly hit by Bhutto‘s nationalization of 1970 which
had inflicted an astounding thud to everybody in business then. Had it not
been the case, many of our tycoons may well have managed to gain the kind of
status greeting the likes of Birlas and Tatas in India today, if not the one
saluting Bill Gates or Warren Buffet. Among these gifted individuals, you will find
politicians-turned-businessmen, businessmen-turned-politicians or even the
businessmen-cum-politicians. With malice towards none and with no intention
to decorate somebody, We thus takes the pride of announcing these names. We hope this document will go a long way in serving as the most authentic endeavour of its kind for a very long time to come. It has been prepared very carefully in consultation with leading real estate barons, stock moghuls, business leaders of virtue and senior bureaucrats at the Central Board of Revenue.

Mian Muhammad Mansha Yaha, Pakistan

Ranking:1 Worth: £1.25b ($2.5billion)Industry: Businessman
Mansha has around 40 companies on board. Mansha, who owns the Muslim Commercial Bank is also setting up a $ 17m paper mill. He is one of the richest Pakistanis around. Nishat Group was country’s 15th richest family in 1970, 6th in 1990 and Number 1 in 1997. Mansha is on the board of nearly 50 companies. He is deemed to have made investments in many bourses, currency and metal exchanges both within and outside Pakistan. He could have bought the United Bank too, but then who doesn’t have adversaries. Nishat Group comprises of textiles, cement, leasing, insurance and management companies. If Mansha was bitten by Bhutto’s nationalization stint of 1970, his friends think he was compensated by Nawaz Sharif’s denationalization programme to a very good effect. There is no stopping Mansha and he is still on the move.
Nishat group assets are $4.4Billion. He is sometimes even regarded as the richest Pakistani around by his friends claiming he does not “show it off”.

Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan

Ranking:2 Worth: £900m ($1.8billion) Industry: Politics

Our Current President as well
Asif Zardari dubbed “Mr 10%” an unknown happy-go-lucky son of a small-time businessman who struck gold by marrying one of the worlds most glamorous women Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Benzair Bhutto. Taking advantage of his wife’s authority he is known to have taken kickbacks from many deals inside and outside of Pakistan. The most famous was a $4 billion deal to buy 32 Mirage jets from the French company Dassault. Documents, which include letters from Dassault executives, indicate an agreement was reached to pay a 5% “remuneration” – about $200m – to Marleton Business, a BVI company controlled by Zardari. Besides these many more kickback deals were taken with companies such as ARY Gold, Société Général de Surveillance (SGS), Cotecna, and ZPC Ursus, a Polish tractor company.
Zardari assets holding amount into hundreds of millions of dollars easily, Having 8 prime properties in the UK, of which once is the famous Rockwood Estate 365 acres in Surrey, worth £4.35m has now been sold and money sent back to the Govt. of Pakistan.
Also 14 multi-million dollar mansions in the USA, including owning Holiday Inn hotel Houston, Texas Owned by “Mr 10%” and Iqbal Memon and Sadar-ud-Din Hashwani.
They (Zardari and B.Bhutto) also have huge business ventures in the Middle East running into hundreds of millions if not billion mark. Mr Zardari also has huge stakes in sugar mills all over Pakistan,which include:
Sakrand Sugar Mills, Nawabshah, Ansari Sugar Mills, Hyderabad, Mirza Sugar Mills, Badin, Pangrio Sugar Mills, Thatta and Bachani Sugar Mills, Sanghar.

Sir Anwar Pervaiz & Sheikh Rizwan, (Chinioti)

Ranking:3 Worth: £750m ($1.5billion) Industry: Businessman
Chairman & Ceo of Bestway Group. The Bestway Group started in 1976 with its first Bestway cash and carry warehouse opened in London. Today the have in total around 50 Cash and Carry’s. Including their recent takeover of rival group Batleys for around £100m. Bestway Group ventured into Pakistan’s huge the cement business in 1995 and set up cement manufacturing plant in Pakistan at a cost of $120 million.
Taking Advantage of Pakistan growing economy they also acquired a 25.5% stake in United Bank Limited in 2002. Today, the Bestway Group has interests in cash & carry wholesale, property investments, retail outlets, milling of rice, lentils and pulses, cement production and more recently into banking. The group’s total sales amounted to in excess of £ 2 billion. The group provides direct employment to thousands in the UK and Pakistan. The have many interests in Pakistan too. Sir Anwar Pervaiz and his his partners sheer hard work has bought them to outstanding international levels, which definitely makes him an ideal role model for many young Pakistanis today. He still on the move!

Nawaz Sharif & Shahbaz Sharif family, Saudi Arabia/Pakistan

Ranking:4 Worth: £700m ($1.4billion) Industry: Politics/Businessman
Mr Sharif Businessman turned politician the former Prime Minister of Pakistan. He was ousted in a military coup in 1999 and was forced to forfeit $9million dollars and some of his assets including his $5m Mansion is Raiwind near Lahore. Before becoming PM he was a major share holder along with his brother and cousins of Ittefaq Group, having assets well in excess of £50m in the 90’s. However he got richer when he took commissions from foreign companies for construction in Pakistan. He build the first motorway and many new roads and took heavy kickbacks. He then also stole $100m from the Iqra funds, he started a new scheme “Ghar Apna” in which he again looted around $40m, the “Mulk swaaro” scheme involving public & govt. money collections to help pay pf Pakistan’s debts also was pocketed. Today he lives in exile in Saudi Arabia where it is known he has a new huge business empire in various sectors.
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