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CONTRIBUTION OF COMMUNITY TO PAKISTAN’S ECONOMY

 

According to “Enterprising Philanthropists”  by Mr. A. Sattar Parekh, immediately after partition two books were written one by Dr. Rajindra Parshad, the first President of India and Dr. Ambedkar, the author of Indian Constitution. Both the authors predicted the non viability of Pakistan. Even Mr. Naheru, had predicted that Pakistan would never be economically viable and will ultimately seek re-union with India. It was this thinking which led India to withhold Rs. 55 crores which was Pakistani share in the assets of British India.

Soon after establishment of Pakistan Quaid-e-Azam called upon the Memons to move to this young country through Sir Adamjee and Mr. Yusuf Haroon. The atrocities of forces which occupied Bantva, Manavador and Kutiana also forced the Memons of these areas to shift to the new country.

Stephen R. Lewis, in his book “Pakistan’s Industrial and Trade Policies” says:

 

“It is wonder that Pakistan’s economy survived at all in the early years. Why did it survive ? it was because of the entrepreneur skills of Muslim community who had migrated to Pakistan from their original homeland in India and prominent among them were Memons. If Pakistan beat the economic odds then a great deal of credit goes to the Memons. Nobody could have predicted it and while in later years it became fashonable to decry the dominance of the Memons in Pakistan’s business community, the fact is that without such dominance Pakistan’s economy may never have developed.

 

Using the capital brought by them from India and blending it with their business acumen and entrepreneur skills the Memons started working for the development of Pakistan. The beginning was made with establishment of trading firms with branches in various places in East & West Pakistan. Then they moved into industry. A journey started towards setting of up industries in different fields until the process was stopped by nationalization of industries in 1971.