THIS is in response to Rafi Ahmed’s letter ‘Business graduates and local companies’ (Jan 22) in which the writer mentions that Pakistani businessmen think only of amassing huge cut-throat profits and do not want to give anything back to their soil.

I do not fully agree with this statement because of some fine examples in Pakistan’s industrial and business history.

The BCCI of Agha Hasan Abidi contributed to establishing Fast National University, GIK Institute of Science and Technology, Sir Syed Engineering University, Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT) and the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases.

Sir Adamjee Haji Dawood, a successful industrialist, set up Orient Airways on the instruction of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, which was later re - branded as PIA.

Dawood College of Engineering and Technology was established by the Dawood industrial group in 1962.

These philanthropist foundations were mostly undermined after the nationalisation of their parent industries in 1973.

However, some new projects are still being created. Habib University, established by the Habib industrial group, is a fine example, providing higher education to promising students from all backgrounds.

The pace of philanthropy from the major industrial groups has been slowed down due to the country’s law-and-order situation and lower industrial growth for the past three decades. However, it should not be compared with the business community of other countries.

IRFAN HUSSAIN London

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