Understanding Pakistan Project

Understanding Pakistan Project Team August 20th, 2007

Guest Post By: Anonymous 

Dr. Mahbubul Haq (figure-right)–an eminent development economist from Pakistan who is considered one of the founders of the Human Development Theory and who along with Nobel Laurette Amertya Sen of India created the Human Development Index–who was, most ironically, General Zia-ul-Haq’s Finance Minister (1982-84)  is known to have said that twenty-two families controlled 66% of Pakistan’s total industrial assets, 70% of insurance, and 80% of all banking assets in Pakistan at the height of Ayub’s power. While these claims have remain unsubstantiated (Zaidi, 1999), there is little doubt that Pakistan experienced considerable concentration of wealth–by both legal and illegal means–in the 1960s and beyond. Rashid Amjad’s work on industrial concentration in Pakistan considerable evidence in his own research.

Who were these 22 families that Mahbub-Ul-Haq hinted at? Nobody knows for sure for he did not disclose the names. But here is a list of 40 of the richest families in Pakistan today that I found from somewhere on the web. Despite my efforts, I could not find a credible source for this essay. Since the data is unsubstantiated–and somewhat subjective–I would advise readers to take it with a grain of salt. However, it puts some nice context around the discussion on Ayub’s economic policies and the “monopoly houses” that immensely profitted from these. Inclusion in this list–which corresponds to 40 richest families of today, not necessarily during Ayub’s time (but there are overlaps and it might be useful to analyze during what periods of time each of these families accumulates their wealth and their political connections with those regimes)–is not a reflection on the whether the wealth was accumulated by legal or illegal means. Indeed, founders of some of these families have played an important at critical moments of Pakistan’s history. That can’t be said about all of them and we leave the judgement to our readers and the future historians.

Anyways, here is the list… Continue Reading »

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Bahadur-Ali June 4th, 2007

By: Baha’adur Ali 

The discussion, not unexpectedly, seems to have evolved into the merits and de-merits of the Two Nation Theory (TNT). Simply speaking, the Two Nation Theory is the idea that Hindus and Muslims are two separate nations based on religious (and probably cultural) identity and are so different that they cannot live together. This, in short, became the central argument of the Pakistan Movement and Jinnah in the decade of the 1940s. It is, therefore, only logical to discuss this important piece of Pakistan’s History.

Also, several commentrators on the blog have taken conflicting positions on this issue. The anchor piece–while exploring the ideological prism of the Pakistan Movement–doesn’t explictly address the validity (or lack of it) of TNT. In fact, it takes the point that whether or not TNT is valid or not is irrelevant.  Sabahat Ashraf, in the commentary on the anchor piece, seems to take the opposite view. Of the several commentors, Asad Umar seems to suggest that TNT is alive and well–despite the creation of Bangladesh which is often credited with nullifying TNT–while Faisal–following Gandhi’s logic–doesn’t seem to support TNT at all in the first place.

To facilitate and add to this conversation , I browsed the internet for for a while to look for what is available on the subject. Here is what I found:

Continue Reading »

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