Comments - History of Pakistan's Business and Industry - PakAlumni Worldwide: The Global Social Network 2024-03-29T09:57:03Zhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profiles/comment/feed?attachedTo=1119293%3ABlogPost%3A120575&xn_auth=noFamily of Pakistani father an…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2023-06-30:1119293:Comment:4249732023-06-30T17:56:13.791ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p>Family of Pakistani father and son who died in Titan submersible shares memories and gratitude<br></br><br></br><a href="https://apnews.com/article/titanic-submersible-implosion-pakistan-dawood-22067e1f8fced4b9df8ec2d463d94d8f" target="_blank">https://apnews.com/article/titanic-submersible-implosion-pakistan-dawood-22067e1f8fced4b9df8ec2d463d94d8f</a><br></br><br></br>ISLAMABAD (AP) — The family of two Pakistani men who died in the implosion of a submersible as it descended to the wreckage of the Titanic…</p>
<p>Family of Pakistani father and son who died in Titan submersible shares memories and gratitude<br/><br/><a href="https://apnews.com/article/titanic-submersible-implosion-pakistan-dawood-22067e1f8fced4b9df8ec2d463d94d8f" target="_blank">https://apnews.com/article/titanic-submersible-implosion-pakistan-dawood-22067e1f8fced4b9df8ec2d463d94d8f</a><br/><br/>ISLAMABAD (AP) — The family of two Pakistani men who died in the implosion of a submersible as it descended to the wreckage of the Titanic held a virtual memorial service Tuesday and thanked everyone who tried to rescue the father and son or sent condolences from around the world.<br/><br/>The prayer service was arranged by the family of Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Suleman, days after authorities confirmed that everyone on the Titan died. The submersible carrying five people imploded near the site of the shipwrecked Titanic and killed everyone on board.<br/><br/>Shahzada Dawood’s widow, Christina Dawood, was in tears as she shared memories of her husband and son. She was on board a support vessel on June 18 when she got word that communications with the Titan submersible had been lost during its voyage to the ocean floor.<br/><br/>In her remarks, she thanked those who had helped the family in its time of grief. The service was broadcast on YouTube through the family’s charity, the Dawood Foundation.<br/><br/>Shahzada and Suleman Dawood were members of one of Pakistan’s most prominent families. The elder man’s father, Hussain Dawood, said during Tuesday’s service that his son and grandson were gifts of God that had been taken back by God.<br/><br/>He also described the two as martyrs and said “martyrs go straight to paradise.”<br/><br/>“What does the father say” when he faces such a tragedy, he asked.<br/><br/>Hussain Dawood, said Suleman and Shahzada were very excited about going to see the Titanic and before leaving for their voyage convinced him that“we should go to Antarctica, too” next winter.<br/><br/>“I’m actually convinced they have enriched our lives beyond measure,” Dawood said, vowing, “We will take forward their legacy.”<br/><br/><br/>Christina Dawood shared memories of when she first met her husband and their wedding in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore.<br/><br/>When Suleman was born, her husband was happy like other fathers but “when he held his son for the first time, I just knew these two belong together,” the wife and mother said. She sensed then that he had “found a long-lost companion for his adventures to come.”<br/><br/></p>
<p class="comment-timestamp"></p> Two Titan submersible passeng…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2023-06-24:1119293:Comment:4250352023-06-24T01:35:24.794ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p><span>Two Titan submersible passengers were prominent science philanthropists in Pakistan</span><br></br><br></br><span><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02100-y" target="_blank">https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02100-y</a></span><br></br><br></br><span>Two of the passengers who died when the Titansubmersible imploded on its way to explore the wreckage of the Titanic in the North Atlantic belonged to a family that are prominent philanthropic funders of science in…</span></p>
<p><span>Two Titan submersible passengers were prominent science philanthropists in Pakistan</span><br/><br/><span><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02100-y" target="_blank">https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02100-y</a></span><br/><br/><span>Two of the passengers who died when the Titansubmersible imploded on its way to explore the wreckage of the Titanic in the North Atlantic belonged to a family that are prominent philanthropic funders of science in Pakistan.</span><br/><br/><span>Shahzada Dawood, and his son, Suleman Dawood, were part of the Dawood Foundation, which set up a university, girls’ school and museum, all with major focuses on science.</span><br/><br/><span>“The tragic loss of father and son is, first and foremost, a human tragedy and a tragedy for the family,” says environmental scientist Adil Najam, who also studies philanthropic giving in Pakistan. “We have also lost someone with a real, personal and abiding interest in science. It is a tremendous loss of a champion for science.”</span><br/><br/><span>“This is a huge tragedy for Pakistan,” adds Atta-ur-Rahman, a chemist at the University of Karachi and a former minister for science. “The [Dawood] family has made enormous contributions to education and science during the last five or six decades.”</span><br/><br/><span>The Dawood family’s foundation established the Dawood University of Engineering and Technology in Karachi; the Karachi School of Business and Leadership; the MagnifiScience Centre, Pakistan's first contemporary science museum also in Karachi. Dawood public school provides high quality science education for girls, Najam says.</span><br/><br/><span>Members of the Dawood family posted a statement to the foundation website about the deaths of Shahzada and Suleman. “We are truly grateful to all those involved in the rescue operations. The immense love and support we receive continues to help us endure this unimagineable loss.” The statement also said: “At this time, we are unable to receive calls and request that support, condolences and prayers be messaged instead.”</span><br/><br/><span>Both Rahman and physicist Pervez Hoodbhoy of the Black Hole Institute, a science and cultural centre in Islamabad, say that the Dawood Foundation is a rare example of much-needed science-philanthropy. Many young people are trying to leave Pakistan because of an economic crisis and a lack of opportunities. Around 800,000 people left in 2022 to seek work abroad. Between 400 and 750 people from Pakistan, as well as Egypt and Syria died last week when a boat capsized off the Mediterranean Sea on its way from Libya to Europe, according to media reports.</span><br/><br/><span>The Dawood family foundation has tried to address these problems by creating opportunities for science education. Rahman adds that there is much more that needs to be done. “We need to rethink our national policies, so that we can use this huge pool of talent for our own socio-economic development,” he says.</span></p> To determine the top 15 Pakis…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2023-05-04:1119293:Comment:4234172023-05-04T00:37:49.666ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p><span>To determine the top 15 Pakistani public companies, we utilized their market capitalization as our primary metric. Our data was obtained from Standard Capital Securities (SCS). Furthermore, we gathered information about Pakistan's leading companies from different sources, such as ADO, the World Bank, Pakistan Stock Exchange Limited and SECP.…</span><br></br><br></br></p>
<p><span>To determine the top 15 Pakistani public companies, we utilized their market capitalization as our primary metric. Our data was obtained from Standard Capital Securities (SCS). Furthermore, we gathered information about Pakistan's leading companies from different sources, such as ADO, the World Bank, Pakistan Stock Exchange Limited and SECP.</span><br/><br/><span><a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/15-biggest-companies-pakistan-market-215430699.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAACNIvV-BPy4AgxYSfOM4O59OWUBwrPsaiyNPc4WPaitPPc-aPX05gaOLToTsBqWGgYNPtrDV5uwQAkE6M9tNaZw_I-4SsVY13-BGpTGvT9ItzP6DGtb03uOtlos8z1J7Wnwq_Tw5b_o3LCvFISqe0P8_bB414E80OQcymLdcrcoF" target="_blank">https://finance.yahoo.com/news/15-biggest-companies-pakistan-market-215430699.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAACNIvV-BPy4AgxYSfOM4O59OWUBwrPsaiyNPc4WPaitPPc-aPX05gaOLToTsBqWGgYNPtrDV5uwQAkE6M9tNaZw_I-4SsVY13-BGpTGvT9ItzP6DGtb03uOtlos8z1J7Wnwq_Tw5b_o3LCvFISqe0P8_bB414E80OQcymLdcrcoF</a></span><br/><br/><span>Here are the 15 biggest public companies in Pakistan:</span><br/><br/><span>15. Pakistan Oilfields Limited</span><br/><span>Current Market Cap: $418.2 million</span><br/><br/><span>Pakistan Oilfields Limited is among the largest companies engaged in the exploration and production of crude oil and gas in the country. Its activities encompass drilling, exploration, and production, resulting in the production of crude oil, natural gas, and LPG that are marketed under POLGAS and its subsidiary, CAPGAS Private Limited. The company's market capitalization was $418.2 million as of 2023.</span><br/><br/><span>14. Systems Limited</span><br/><span>Current Market Cap: $460 million</span><br/><br/><span>Systems Limited, a prominent technology consultancy and software development firm based in Pakistan, provides a diverse array of software services and solutions, such as customer relationship management, business intelligence, and digital transformation. Its customer base lies across multiple sectors including finance, manufacturing, education, and healthcare. The company's market capitalization is $460 million as of 2023.</span><br/><br/><span>13. Unilever Pakistan Foods Limited</span><br/><span>Current Market Cap: $460 million</span><br/><br/><span>Unilever Pakistan Foods Ltd. is a company that produces and sells food products for both consumers and businesses. They sell their products under several brand names, including Rafhan, Knorr, Energile, Glaxose-D, and Food Solutions. In addition to food, they also offer personal care and home care products. The company was established in 1946 and is based in Karachi, Pakistan. Its market cap, as of 2023, is $460 million.</span><br/><br/><span>12. Fauji Fertilizer Company Limited</span><br/><span>Current Market Cap: $460 million</span><br/><br/><span>Fauji Fertilizer Co Ltd is primarily engaged in the production of fertilizer. The company's market capitalization is $460 million as of 2023 and has a P/E ratio of 3.68.</span><br/><br/><span>11. Lucky Cement Limited</span><br/><span>Current Market Cap: $490 million</span><br/><br/><span>Lucky Cement's contribution to the construction industry and the national economy has been significant, and it continues to play a key role in the development of infrastructure in Pakistan and abroad. The company's market cap is $490 million as of 2023.</span><br/><br/><span>10. MCB Bank Limited</span><br/><span>Current Market Cap: $500 million</span><br/><br/><span>MCB Bank is listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange and has a strong financial performance, reflecting its sound business strategy and operational excellence. The bank's contribution to the national economy has been significant, and it continues to play a key role in the development of the financial sector in Pakistan. The company's market capitalization is $0.5 billion as of 2023.</span><br/><br/><span>9. Engro Corporation Limited</span><br/><span>Current Market Cap: $550 million</span><br/><br/><span>Engro Corp. Ltd. is involved in various industries such as fertilizers, PVC resin production and marketing, food, energy, and chemical terminal and storage. The company was founded in 1965 and is headquartered in Karachi, Pakistan. It has a market cap of $550 million as of 2023.</span><br/><br/></p> To determine the top 15 Pakis…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2023-05-04:1119293:Comment:4237952023-05-04T00:37:09.404ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p><span>To determine the top 15 Pakistani public companies, we utilized their market capitalization as our primary metric. Our data was obtained from Standard Capital Securities (SCS). Furthermore, we gathered information about Pakistan's leading companies from different sources, such as ADO, the World Bank, Pakistan Stock Exchange Limited and SECP.…</span><br></br><br></br><br></br></p>
<p><span>To determine the top 15 Pakistani public companies, we utilized their market capitalization as our primary metric. Our data was obtained from Standard Capital Securities (SCS). Furthermore, we gathered information about Pakistan's leading companies from different sources, such as ADO, the World Bank, Pakistan Stock Exchange Limited and SECP.</span><br/><br/><br/><span><a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/15-biggest-companies-pakistan-market-215430699.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAACNIvV-BPy4AgxYSfOM4O59OWUBwrPsaiyNPc4WPaitPPc-aPX05gaOLToTsBqWGgYNPtrDV5uwQAkE6M9tNaZw_I-4SsVY13-BGpTGvT9ItzP6DGtb03uOtlos8z1J7Wnwq_Tw5b_o3LCvFISqe0P8_bB414E80OQcymLdcrcoF" target="_blank">https://finance.yahoo.com/news/15-biggest-companies-pakistan-market-215430699.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAACNIvV-BPy4AgxYSfOM4O59OWUBwrPsaiyNPc4WPaitPPc-aPX05gaOLToTsBqWGgYNPtrDV5uwQAkE6M9tNaZw_I-4SsVY13-BGpTGvT9ItzP6DGtb03uOtlos8z1J7Wnwq_Tw5b_o3LCvFISqe0P8_bB414E80OQcymLdcrcoF</a></span><br/><br/><br/><span>8. United Bank Limited</span><br/><span>Current Market Cap: USD 550 million</span><br/><br/><span>UBL is a subsidiary of Bestway Group, a British company. It is headquartered in Karachi and considered one of the biggest private banks in Pakistan, boasting more than 1,390 branches in the country and having 18 branches abroad. It serves over 4 million customers. The company's market capitalization was $550 million as of 2023.</span><br/><br/><span>7. Colgate-Palmolive Company</span><br/><span>Current Market Cap: $590 million</span><br/><br/><span>Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan Limited has a market cap of $590 million as of 2023. It is a subsidiary of Colgate-Palmolive Company, a global consumer goods company. It maintains a prominent position in Pakistan with a broad distribution structure that caters to the rural and urban regions. The company generates substantial income through taxes and duties for the Pakistani government.</span><br/><br/><span>6. Meezan Bank</span><br/><span>Current Market Cap: $620 million</span><br/><br/><span>Meezan's main office is located at Meezan House in Karachi, and it has a vast network of more than 900 branches in over 250 cities. The bank obtained the Pakistan operations of Société Générale. Meezan's market capitalization was $620 million as of 2023.</span><br/><br/><span>5. Pakistan Petroleum Limited</span><br/><span>Current Market Cap: $630 million</span><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><span>Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) has played a key role in the energy sector of the country since the 1950s and is credited with spearheading the natural gas industry. PPL remains a significant supplier of natural gas, accounting for about 20% of the nation’s total supply. The company also produces crude oil, natural gas liquid, and liquefied petroleum gas. The company’s market cap is $630 million as of 2023.</span><br/><br/><span>4. Pakistan Tobacco Company Limited</span><br/><span>Current Market Cap: $650 million</span><br/><br/><br/><span>Pakistan Tobacco Company Limited was established in 1947. The company acquired the operations of the Imperial Tobacco Company in India that had been running in the subcontinent since 1905.</span><br/><br/><br/><span>3. Mari Petroleum Company Limited</span><br/><span>Current Market Cap: $750 million</span><br/><br/><br/><span>Pakistan relies heavily on oil and gas imports to fulfill its energy requirements. The advancement of domestic oil and gas resources is crucial for the economic development of the country. MPCL has played an essential role in exploring and producing oil and gas, which has reduced the country’s dependence on foreign energy sources.</span><br/><br/><span>2. Nestlé Pakistan Limited</span><br/><span>Current Market Cap: $840 million</span><br/><br/><span>Nestlé Pakistan Limited was established in Pakistan in 1988 and is headquartered in Lahore, Pakistan. The company is primarily focused on the manufacture and sale of food and beverage products, including milk, tea, coffee, confectionery, and culinary products. The company’s market capitalization is $840 million as of 2023.</span><br/><br/><br/><span>1. Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL)</span><br/><span>Current Market Cap: $1.3 billion</span><br/><br/><span>The Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) is an oil and gas exploration and production company in Pakistan. OGDCL has played a pivotal role in the development of the country’s energy sector and is the largest producer of oil and gas in Pakistan. It has its headquarters in Islamabad, and the government owns the majority stake of 74%, while the remaining portion is held by private investors. The company’s market capitalization is $1.3 billion as of 2023.</span></p> Hanging out with Pakistan’s 1…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2023-03-05:1119293:Comment:4206182023-03-05T16:32:08.553ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p>Hanging out with Pakistan’s 1%<br></br><br></br><a href="https://tribune.com.pk/story/2404547/hanging-out-with-pakistans-1" target="_blank">https://tribune.com.pk/story/2404547/hanging-out-with-pakistans-1</a><br></br><br></br>“Interestingly, military officers prefer industrialist girls or even the daughters of bureaucrats with good standing and they seem to shy away from politicians,” she says. “Marital strategies continue to be one of the most powerful mechanisms employed by the Pakistani elite to protect…</p>
<p>Hanging out with Pakistan’s 1%<br/><br/><a href="https://tribune.com.pk/story/2404547/hanging-out-with-pakistans-1" target="_blank">https://tribune.com.pk/story/2404547/hanging-out-with-pakistans-1</a><br/><br/>“Interestingly, military officers prefer industrialist girls or even the daughters of bureaucrats with good standing and they seem to shy away from politicians,” she says. “Marital strategies continue to be one of the most powerful mechanisms employed by the Pakistani elite to protect their economic assets and their social status, to foster inter-elite networks and to gather information on other elite families.”<br/><br/>Many of the established elite families that Armytage spoke to view themselves as having really high culture and elite dispositions. “Often they have actually lost a lot of wealth that they originally had, but they continue to own property and have high status, even though they’re no longer the most-wealthy people in Pakistan. Many wealth holders are the nouveau riche families but they don’t have old-money prestige and hence feel stigmatised. Often the established elite as gatekeepers, keep out the nouveau riche from institutions such as the elite social clubs of Lahore and Karachi and established elite schools that they want to be part of and where business and marriage decisions are made. They try to keep them out because these families are losing income comparative to the nouveau riche families. Marriages blend the wealth of one family with the status of another, provide an overall security and stability, and protect these families from political volatility. Some influential families have connections to the princely states in India so it’s all about propelling upward mobility.”<br/><br/>Armytage explains why, for instance, people from solid middle-class backgrounds who were in the military weren’t able to break into the social forums of the established elite and weren’t even able to do business with a certain group of people. “It is because they were never invited to the right parties,” she says. “But when they go about setting up marriages with the daughters or sons of some of those most established elite families, it brings a huge influx of capital to families who are running on fumes despite huge properties.”<br/><br/>Another interesting deduction Armytage makes is that Pakistani elites don’t like to dominate and be competitive in the world because they enjoy being big fish in a little pond. “A number of elites in other parts of the world also find that when they leave their country, they lose their status and access that they had before,” she points out. “When the Russian elites came to London, they brought in enormous wealth, much more than the Londoners they were spending time with. Yet they couldn’t break into these elite circles because they were viewed as too ostentatious and crass.”<br/><br/>Since most of her research done in 2014 was a turbulent time for Pakistan, many people told Armytage they couldn’t possibly move overseas permanently, because it would be dull without the excitement of Pakistani politics and being in the centre of the constant drama.<br/><br/>Towards the end of the book she discusses that the contemporary Pakistani elite are closer to their colonial predecessors in their abuse of power and moral grounds than they would like to acknowledge.<br/><br/>Armytage sees food insecurity, climate change, and uneducated youth population as serious challenges for Pakistan and she hopes that the country would increase its wealth base and that as a result of moving into middle-income status, there could be more wealth available and less people living in poverty. She believes that good policy making can transform people’s access to resources, their ability to grow their own income and to improve the lives of a larger number of people, which has happened to some degree in each of the decades post-partition.<br/><br/></p>
<p class="comment-timestamp"></p> Hanging out with Pakistan’s 1…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2023-03-05:1119293:Comment:4208122023-03-05T16:31:14.190ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p><span>Hanging out with Pakistan’s 1%</span><br></br><br></br><span><a href="https://tribune.com.pk/story/2404547/hanging-out-with-pakistans-1" target="_blank">https://tribune.com.pk/story/2404547/hanging-out-with-pakistans-1</a></span><br></br><br></br><span>Did being a foreigner and a woman help in these influential people loosening up?</span><br></br><br></br><span>“I have an entire chapter in the book about my position as a middle-class foreign woman enabling me to access often older, Pakistani, wealthy men who…</span></p>
<p><span>Hanging out with Pakistan’s 1%</span><br/><br/><span><a href="https://tribune.com.pk/story/2404547/hanging-out-with-pakistans-1" target="_blank">https://tribune.com.pk/story/2404547/hanging-out-with-pakistans-1</a></span><br/><br/><span>Did being a foreigner and a woman help in these influential people loosening up?</span><br/><br/><span>“I have an entire chapter in the book about my position as a middle-class foreign woman enabling me to access often older, Pakistani, wealthy men who were far above me in social class and from a different culture,” she responds. “Being a woman changes the dynamic significantly. That type of access is difficult for Pakistani journalists.”</span><br/><br/><span>Armytage claims to be well-accustomed to the Pakistani society, since she has been exposed to it for 22 years in different capacities.</span><br/><br/><span>Her research points out that the wealthy in Pakistan are not a homogenous group, but divided along various lines such as region, ethnicity, religion, and business sector. Armytage argues that these divisions are important for understanding the micro politics of wealth in Pakistan, as they shape the ways in which the wealthy interact with each other and the society.</span><br/><br/><span>Hence, the central message of her book is that Pakistan is run by a small group of elite families who comprise different power blocks in business, politics, bureaucracy and military. “They determine the direction of the country, make laws and benefit from that,” she says. “The book looks at how they have power that they have maintained since Partition and in times of major upheavals such as the 1965 and 1971 wars. Basically, the elite creates regulation, but does not have to follow it. They get wealthier and more powerful as they shape up for a better control on things. The book also looks at strategic socialising and marriages and the ‘culture of exemptions.’”</span><br/><br/><span>Armytage explains that this culture enables the elite to maintain and buttress their positions and thwart competition. The use of law as a mechanism, plus extralegal and sometimes illegal activities constitute the means of wealth accumulation and preservation as well as tax avoidance.</span><br/><br/><span>“Much like the global elite of which they are a part, the Pakistani elite direct the legal and regulatory structures that determine wealth flow and opportunity within the country, while simultaneously operating outside of, and above these structures,” she explains. “There are two groups of established elite. Firstly, those who acquired their wealth pre-partition through land grants and other perks from the Mughal empire all from association with the British and through benefitting from that particular regime, and also in the first couple of decades after Pakistan. Then there are those who acquired their wealth mostly post-1977 in relation to the military regime of the time and other regimes that followed. Within the established elite group, there are a couple of different groups. There is the group of mainly middle-class Gujrati traders who Muhammad Ali Jinnah relied on to establish the new Pakistani nation and that becomes really important when we look at Pakistani elite today. They were called upon to help establish the industry that Pakistan needed. At the time of Partition, all the industrial infrastructure of united India remained in India and an enormous vacuum needed to be filled to justify the needs of the new Pakistan. So these middle-class groups were lured over to Pakistan by Jinnah and his government and given tax concessions and other perks to make business lucrative for them. As a result they really thrived within that community. Most of those traders moved to Karachi while the established elite settled in Lahore, which is closer to the Indo-Pak border that they crossed over.”</span><br/><br/><span>Armytage observes that marriages among the elite create bonds between families and promote ‘political dynasties’ which helps protect their power and influence.</span></p> Hanging out with Pakistan’s 1…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2023-03-05:1119293:Comment:4206152023-03-05T16:30:02.075ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p><span>Hanging out with Pakistan’s 1%</span><br></br><br></br><span><a href="https://tribune.com.pk/story/2404547/hanging-out-with-pakistans-1" target="_blank">https://tribune.com.pk/story/2404547/hanging-out-with-pakistans-1</a></span><br></br><br></br><span>Australian anthropologist rubbed shoulders with Pakistan's wealthiest people for 14 months to understand how they live</span><br></br><br></br><br></br><span>Choosing Pakistan for her PhD research project, she set out to investigate Pakistan’s elite. Her research…</span></p>
<p><span>Hanging out with Pakistan’s 1%</span><br/><br/><span><a href="https://tribune.com.pk/story/2404547/hanging-out-with-pakistans-1" target="_blank">https://tribune.com.pk/story/2404547/hanging-out-with-pakistans-1</a></span><br/><br/><span>Australian anthropologist rubbed shoulders with Pakistan's wealthiest people for 14 months to understand how they live</span><br/><br/><br/><span>Choosing Pakistan for her PhD research project, she set out to investigate Pakistan’s elite. Her research based on interviews of many people from elite families revealed that beneath the formal structure lie networks of power and influence linked by family, social connections and marriages through which economic and political competition, deals and alliances are made.</span><br/><br/><span>Initially, her focus was going to be about the aspirations of the middle class, but a car ride to Lahore, changed the course of her research. “I wanted to learn more about middle-class Pakistanis as I spent a lot of time with my colleagues and my friends,” she says. “But one day, I had to go to Lahore to meet some academics at LUMS and was all set for a Daewoo trip, but my friend who I was staying with suggested that I go with a friend of hers who was driving to Lahore. Over the three and a half hours of this car ride to Lahore, I started asking questions and this amazing story came out about this person’s family business as a cigarette manufacturer, his family, networks of uncles and cousins and family members involved in trade with China, and of the bribes they’d recently been asked to pay.”</span><br/><br/><span>By the time they arrived in Lahore, Armytage had made up her mind to write a book about big business families. “A few days later, I sat with an industrialist, his brother and his cousin and one of their family friends, the son of a prominent Lahore politician and they drew this three-page long list of the wealthiest and most powerful business people in Pakistan to be interviewed,” she recalls. “They marked at least 20 people off that list that they could access either through work or friends.”</span><br/><br/><span>Eventually, Armytage had several interviews lined up with some of the biggest business families in Lahore.</span><br/><br/><span>“Every person that I interviewed introduced me to more,” says Armytage. “Some I met multiple times for second interviews or to meet more people and it just spiralled. There were challenges, but it opened up in a way that I hadn’t expected. A lot of these families had gone through turbulence because of the instability in Pakistan so was plenty to tell. Sometimes they would speak for hours and I would be exhausted.”</span><br/><br/><span>Did they enjoy talking to her or thought she was being nosy? “People were clear about what I was doing,” says Armytage. “I had to form relationships of trust with people who I would be introduced to and I told them that I am writing a book. People enjoy talking about what they do and it’s surprising how much they tell you if you’re genuinely interested in their lives,” she says. “Pakistanis are so used to being asked about terrorism and political instability that I think they were delighted to be asked about their success. Mostly, it would be about their work, families and friendships. Also I could gauge how much freedom I had to ask. There were some areas, however, where I was advised to not go too far.”</span></p> Cotton From Prehistoric Pakis…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2022-12-19:1119293:Comment:4168202022-12-19T15:34:11.054ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p>Cotton From Prehistoric Pakistan Found in 7,200-year-old Village in Israel<br></br><br></br><a href="https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/2022-12-19/ty-article/cotton-from-prehistoric-pakistan-found-in-7-200-year-old-village-in-israel/00000185-2a82-d08f-abdd-fa92488d0000" target="_blank">https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/2022-12-19/ty-article/cotton-from-prehistoric-pakistan-found-in-7-200-year-old-village-in-israel/00000185-2a82-d08f-abdd-fa92488d0000</a><br></br><br></br><br></br>But hmo-kind discovered…</p>
<p>Cotton From Prehistoric Pakistan Found in 7,200-year-old Village in Israel<br/><br/><a href="https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/2022-12-19/ty-article/cotton-from-prehistoric-pakistan-found-in-7-200-year-old-village-in-israel/00000185-2a82-d08f-abdd-fa92488d0000" target="_blank">https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/2022-12-19/ty-article/cotton-from-prehistoric-pakistan-found-in-7-200-year-old-village-in-israel/00000185-2a82-d08f-abdd-fa92488d0000</a><br/><br/><br/>But hmo-kind discovered plant fibers at least tens of thousands of years ago. In 2020, archaeologists found no less than three-ply cord in a Neanderthal context in France, taking the crown from 23,000-year-old string found in Ohalo, Israel. What the Neanderthals or humans from Ohalo were doing with string, we do not know. However, the archaeologists note that the ability to create cord is the prerequisite for a host of potential developments, including textile weaving.<br/><br/><br/>Textiles do not preserve well in the archaeological record, to put it mildly. Yet moving on from the Ohalo cord, evidence of early weaving pops up here and there – including an extremely complex woven basket found in a cave in the Judean Desert from 10,500 years ago. Material made of oak bast (the innards of bark), meanwhile, was found in Çatalhöyük, Turkey, from 8,500 years ago.<br/><br/><br/>In short, before cotton, people in the region were using bast and flax fibers. And now Liu, Rosenberg and the team report on cotton in Tel Tsaf – definitely from afar, and seemingly before the plant had even been domesticated. And it was dyed, to boot.<br/><br/>What colors were the fibers tinted, and can they speak to Neolithic tastes? They cannot. Rosenberg stresses that the sample of fibers from Tel Tsaf is small (123 microfibers in total), and 16 being observed to be cotton in shades of blue, three pink, one purple, one green and three brown/black means precisely nothing about their preferences. What it does mean, the professor qualifies, is that these late prehistoric peoples were not just making textiles and fibers – they were doing further manipulation and coloring their cloths.<br/><br/>By the way, the most frequently used fiber in ancient Tel Tsaf was bast, and they also used flax and jute, the archaeologists report.<br/><br/>A story from Pakistan<br/><br/>Let us move onto the cotton's origin. Why couldn’t the cotton fibers of Tel Tsaf be local? And why do they think it’s Pakistan, not North Africa?<br/><br/>It isn’t likely to have been grown locally because cotton is happiest in tropical and subtropical regions with ample water. It apparently didn’t grow in prehistoric Israel, and the thinking is that like the “invention” of agriculture itself – the cultivation of cotton arose independently around the world, including in the Indus Valley and North Africa. “But cultivation in North Africa was later,” Rosenberg explains.<br/><br/>The earliest archaeological evidence of cotton’s use is in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period at the Mehrgarh burial site in central Balochistan, Pakistan. Cotton threads were used to string copper beads about 8,500 to 7,500 years ago.<br/><br/>It bears clarifying that the earliest known cotton fabric is a tiny fragment of actual cloth (albeit stuck to the lid of a silver vase), which was discovered at Mohenjo-daro, also Pakistan, from 5,000 to 4,750 years ago.<br/><br/>So, cotton was known in some context in prehistoric Pakistan at the time of its appearance in Tel Tsaf, Rosenberg says.<br/><br/>What cotton? Wild cotton. The plant apparently wouldn’t be domesticated for at least 2,000 years more, he explains. “Based primarily on evidence from seeds, domestication is thought to have occurred during the time of the Harappan civilization (2600-1900 B.C.E.),” the authors write.<br/><br/>And how might the wild cotton have been used, aside from making threads to string crude copper beads? Weaving textiles is a reasonable assumption, because cotton isn’t the stuff for baskets.<br/><br/></p>
<p class="comment-timestamp"></p> Cotton From Prehistoric Pakis…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2022-12-19:1119293:Comment:4168192022-12-19T15:33:41.782ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p><span>Cotton From Prehistoric Pakistan Found in 7,200-year-old Village in Israel…</span><br></br><br></br></p>
<p><span>Cotton From Prehistoric Pakistan Found in 7,200-year-old Village in Israel</span><br/><br/><span><a href="https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/2022-12-19/ty-article/cotton-from-prehistoric-pakistan-found-in-7-200-year-old-village-in-israel/00000185-2a82-d08f-abdd-fa92488d0000" target="_blank">https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/2022-12-19/ty-article/cotton-from-prehistoric-pakistan-found-in-7-200-year-old-village-in-israel/00000185-2a82-d08f-abdd-fa92488d0000</a></span><br/><br/><span>The cotton found in Neolithic Israel, dyed in blue and other colors, couldn’t have been local because it isn’t indigenous – but it was in the Indus Valley, archaeologists say</span><br/><br/><span>Around 7,000 years ago, somebody arrived in a prehistoric village in today’s northern Israel with a luxurious novelty: cotton.</span><br/><br/><span>Cotton was not known to the earliest civilizations rising in the Near East because it isn’t indigenous to the region, and where and when it was first domesticated remains a mystery. But now traces of this alien plant with its exquisitely soft bolls have been detected in Tel Tsaf.</span><br/><br/><span>This is the earliest trace of cotton found in the Near East to date by centuries, the researchers say. They believe it originated in the Indus Valley, though do not rule out an African origin.</span><br/><br/><span>How did cotton get to Tel Tsaf 7,000 years ago from the Indus Valley (or North Africa)? By trading, suggest Li Liu of Stanford University, Maureece Levin of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Florian Klimscha of the Lower Saxony State Museum (Hannover, Germany) and Danny Rosenberg of the University of Haifa, writing in Frontiers in Plant Science.</span><br/><br/><span>Tel Tsaf contains the ruins of a village that arose about 7,300 to 7,200 years ago and would thrive for about 500 years, after which it was deserted for reasons that remain unknown. That in itself is quite the mystery given the abundance of its environs in the central Jordan Valley, south of the Sea of Galilee, Rosenberg notes. But for its time, this had been some settlement.</span><br/><br/><span>The wonders found during half a century of excavation there include the most ancient copper object in this part of the Middle East (there’s somewhat older in Iraq), a clay model of a grain silo – possibly indicating ritual involving food cultivation and storage – and a stamped sealing from around 7,000 years ago. This all suggests, the archaeologists surmise, that Tel Tsaf was an extraordinarily wealthy place as Late Neolithic settlements went.</span><br/><br/><span>Now Liu, Rosenberg and colleagues have detected cotton microfibers, at least some of which were dyed, from 7,000 years ago. This may provide further indication of trading relationships at the cusp of the transition from the Late Neolithic to the Early Chalcolithic in the valley.</span><br/><br/><span>It bears adding that the earliest cotton reported previously was in Dhuweila, eastern Jordan, and dates to centuries later – some time between 6,450 years ago to around 5,000 years ago.</span><br/><br/><span>To be clear, it isn’t that humans strolled around in the altogether with their bits flapping in the breeze until discovering the delights of cotton. The thinking, says Rosenberg, is that the earliest garb was animal skins, whether worn to preserve modesty, for reasons of status, for warmth or for some other reason.</span></p> Pakistan’s Fatima Group inks…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2022-03-08:1119293:Comment:4069482022-03-08T20:56:03.882ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p><span>Pakistan’s Fatima Group inks $1 billion deals with global agriculture giants at Expo 2020 Dubai</span><br></br><br></br><br></br><span><a href="https://www.techjuice.pk/pakistans-fatima-group-inks-1-billion-deals-with-global-agriculture-giants-at-expo-2020-dubai/" target="_blank">https://www.techjuice.pk/pakistans-fatima-group-inks-1-billion-deals-with-global-agriculture-giants-at-expo-2020-dubai/</a></span><br></br><br></br><span>CMEC as a technology partner, will help with the adaption of climate-smart…</span></p>
<p><span>Pakistan’s Fatima Group inks $1 billion deals with global agriculture giants at Expo 2020 Dubai</span><br/><br/><br/><span><a href="https://www.techjuice.pk/pakistans-fatima-group-inks-1-billion-deals-with-global-agriculture-giants-at-expo-2020-dubai/" target="_blank">https://www.techjuice.pk/pakistans-fatima-group-inks-1-billion-deals-with-global-agriculture-giants-at-expo-2020-dubai/</a></span><br/><br/><span>CMEC as a technology partner, will help with the adaption of climate-smart precision agriculture farm machinery, improved high-yielding seeds, and other crop inputs in Pakistan. In addition, Sarh Attaqnia Company is a key partner that will invest in developing a state-of-the-art agriculture value chain encompassing sustainable production, processing, warehousing, and export marketing of grain crops to help ensure regional food security.</span><br/><br/><span>Pakistan has over 20% of its GDP linked with agriculture and about 64% of the human resource associated with it. This collaboration will potentially unlock a tremendous amount of untapped land resources of Pakistan by bringing fallow lands under cultivation for sustainable production of crops like rice, barley, oats, silage bales for livestock, and dairy industry under the Corporate Agriculture Farming initiative. Fatima Group, along with the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan, is at the Pakistan Pavilion in Expo 2020 Dubai over the next four days, holding a range of events showcasing its commitment to help ensure regional food security, agricultural innovation, and women empowerment in the agriculture sector of Pakistan.</span><br/><br/><span>Fatima Group contributes significantly to the economic development of Pakistan. It was established in 1936 to ensure the trading of commodities and which gradually entered into the manufacturing of various products. The Group has ensured a success story that has spread over seven decades, expanding its horizon from trading to manufacturing. As of now, the Group is engaged in trading of commodities, manufacturing of fertilizers, textiles, sugar, mining and energy.</span></p>