Recognizing Pakistani business visionaries

In emerging markets like Pakistan, industrial houses tend to be shy to share quite a bit of information about their business operations. No doubt, listed companies now make more disclosures as prescribed by law. They also have to present a corporate profile and credit rating to raise funds from capital market for business expansion and project financing. But only a handful of companies are being listed at the stock exchanges. Bulk of the businesses are run by private firms and partnerships which are out of public focus.

In the background of “22 families” coined by Dr Mahboobul Haq in the 1960s and the nationalization in the 1970s, the companies do not look upon transparency as a great virtue…