May 26, 2008	Monday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 20, 1429

NEW DELHI, May 25: About 18,560 Pakistanis have been deprived of billions of rupees accumulated on returns of shares in Indian firms they had bought before 1965.

India seized the shares bought by Pakistanis in 558 Indian companies after the 1965 war. These shares are lying with the Office of Custodians of Enemy Properties under the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs following a notification issued by the government in 1968.

The Indian government is undecided about the fate of these shares.

Media reports, citing the record of the department, said that the capitalised amount of five shareholders in Indian companies was about Rs109.6 billion. These companies are the high-profile Indian entities such as Wipro, Cipla, five companies of the Tata group, ACC and three companies of the DCM group.

Similarly, two Pakistani stakeholders have 10 million shares of Wipro, the world’s largest independent R&D services provider, valued at about Rs50.4 billion. Thirty-four Pakistanis have shares in pharmaceutical major Cipla worth Rs48.2 billion.

In four companies of Tata Motors, Tata Power, Tata Steel, Tata Chemicals and Tata Coffee, Pakistanis have shares worth Rs48 million.

Pakistanis invested in Indian companies including Hindustan Unilever, ITC DLF, Bajaj Electricals, CSCE, Reliance energies, EIH, Aditya Birla, Nuvo, India Cement, Dalmia Cement and Ballarpur Industries before 1965.

According to an assessment of the custodian office, the value of the shares owned by Pakistanis in the listed 45 Indian companies is Rs18 billion.

Indian newspaper the Economic Times contested the figures of the custodian department and said that Pakistanis had far more shares in the companies than revealed by the department.

The custodians have recorded 1.6 million Pakistani shares in Wipro. But, the company sources say there are 10 million Pakistani shares.

Similarly, there are 23 million shares of Pakistanis in Cipla, but the department has recorded only 1.1 million shares, the paper said.—APP