He is young, tall and robust, has a ponytail and looks more like an athlete or a basketball star, but he is a venture capitalist from Canada more interested in IT ventures particularly in Pakistan, and he is a good friend of many Pakistanis in Canada.
John Marshall has been to Pakistan many times and has decided to make a large investment here. He took the final decision on the day the French submarine engineers and technicians were attacked and eleven of them killed. But he remained undeterred by the tragedy. He was the chief guest at a dinner hosted by Khalid Awan of TCS and his wife Saadia, with a variety of guests ranging from Farooq Leghari, former President of Pakistan and Lt-Gen (retd) Lodhi, former governor of Balochistan and the deputy governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, Tawfiq Hussain and Shafqat Jamote, former minister.
Among the politicians were Javed Jabber who, in fact, brought Leghari to the dinner from a public meeting, but without the bulky turbans they were wearing earlier. Former senator, Majid Sultan, a friend of the Sharif family, was insisting that Shahbaz would be returning home soon. Tariq Rangoonwala was there as also Hamid Maker of the Helpline Trust, who was concerned that the return of politics might mean the return of old chaos.
Jamil Janjua, formerly of the British Council, now chief executive of TCS, was also there. TCS is now getting to be international. Awan has an office in Dubai, while he is spreading out in Canada where he sees plenty of scope. Several Pakistanis settled in Canada were there and Anwar Merchant, president of the Canada-Pakistan Business Council, was among them. He said that the Pakistanis in Canada persuaded John Marshall to visit Pakistan because of his keen interest in the country.
Oil men
When Aitzaz Shahbaz, the former Shell chief and now chairman of the Sui Southern Gas, gives a dinner, you can be sure that oil and gas chiefs will predominate. Farooq Rahmatullah of Shell, Tariq Kirmani of PSO and Masood Sohail of the PPL are among them.
Now, Mukhtar Ahmed, who was till recently the managing director of the Sui Southern Gas, is returning to the Asian Development Bank after three years here. The modest Mukhtar was there with his wife, Samina. He has been given a good posting in Manila, and does not want to miss it.
The corporate community was in full strength and included Javed Anwar of British Oxygen and the bankers were represented by Zakir Mehmood of Habib Bank. Jaji, as A. Shahbaz is known among his friends, is distinguishing himself as a theatrical actor.
Earlier, he played a rogue cop exceedingly well. Recently, he appeared in a play in Dubai for which the audience paid 500 Dirhams as charity.
ESUP
Byram Avari is having a busy time. Activity for the English Speaking Union chief comes in spurts. It depends on the availability of important VIPs holding high official positions, though not necessarily interesting speakers. They are sometimes available with short intervals, as happened recently when the commerce minister, Razzak Dawood, addressed the ESUP on the trade policy and three days later, the law minister, Dr Khalid Ranjha, spoke on “constitutional amendments.” The people who came to Beach Luxury were more interested in seeing Khalid Ranjha, the one-time iconoclast who is now driving on the ministerial rails of the military government, than in listening to him.
They were sure he could not do anything besides defending the amendments of the president, as done by other ministers. He says that if you want, he can impeach the president. Other ministers have said the same thing since the constitution was framed in 1973. The constitution even holds its gross violation as treason, but no one has ever been tried on that charge and no president punished. So the question of any president being impeached now does not arise.
Byram Avari gave a dinner in honour of Ranjha. Many Karachiites, who had never seen or met him, had a cozy chat with him. Hussain Haroon, vice president of the ESUP, was there for an eloquent vote of thanksgiving. The ESUP members were wondering about his own political future. His name was again mentioned recently as the possible governor.
Barrister-Banker
It was a wedding between a barrister and a banker. The bride, Alizeh, daughter of Iqbal Haider, a lawyer, and Guddo. The groom, Ali, works for Standard Chartered Bank.
When a VIP wedding function is scheduled during the weekend, several federal ministers who spend their weekend in Karachi are bound to attend. Interior minister, Moinuddin Haider and information minister, Nisar Memon, were there.
The provincial government was represented by the provincial health minister, Ahsan Ahmed. And former provincial chief ministers, Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi and Mumtaz Bhutto, were there discussing the political future of the country. Nawab Yusuf Talpur and Atizaz Ahsan were among the ex-minister present. The PPP brigade was led by Mian Raza Rabbani, the secretary-general. The Sindh police chief, Kamal Shah, was there as also the Capital City police chief, Asad Jahangir. Former Army Vice Chief-of- Staff, Lt-Gen (retd) Ali Kuli Khan Khattak was also there. Among the bankers were Aamir Zafar Khan of UBL and Nadeem Hussain of Citibank, here from London along with wife, Sherry Rehman, who is contesting the elections to the National Assembly. Iqbal Haider had a colourful mehndi at the Tourism Development Institute, which was also attended by a Russian diplomat from across the road.
Merry Merck
While many foreigners have left the country, one man who is more than happy to stay put is Juergen Koenig. A German born in Brazil, he loves Pakistan and wants to serve it in every way he can. If he has his way, he will not have far more prawns, but cheaper ones. He had a day-long seminar to promote prawn cultivation with the technology of Merck. He is also actively promoting the sale of Merck medicines to Afghanistan, which he does in dollars and gets prompt payment, which pleases the government of Pakistan.
As former president of Metropolitan Rotary, he organized a major inter-school debate in which a large number of schools participated. Evidently, his interests are very wide and he has a great deal of energy.
He is young, tall and robust, has a ponytail and looks more like an athlete or a basketball star, but he is a venture capitalist from Canada more interested in IT ventures particularly in Pakistan, and he is a good friend of many Pakistanis in Canada.
