Pakistani billionaire to spend 75% of his wealth on aid

[pak-marine]

lets not pick on who what he has pledged lets accept a good gesture , there are many cash cows no one has so far pledge any thing big.

 

[U-571]

Bill Gates is a billionaire philanthropist...........among other names.....

who the F will give away 75% man that 3/4ths

 

[Icarus]

who the F will give away 75% man that 3/4ths

I don't think he would give away 75% of his wealth. But a significant amount.

 

[Jamshed]

his interview with richard quest on CNN will be on air tomorrow in which he said that he will give 75% of his wealth upto 2b $ for reconstruction

 

[aks18]

Is he not the same guy who offered Musharraf about paying off the debts of Pakistan by starting two housing projects somewhere in Pakistan and selling to overseas projects? isn't it?

I can remember his interview in which he was giving details and saying that he sold 100,000 houses in a matter of days so why can't the government do the same. Government having more resources and better approach can sell each house for more expensive price and if proper selling expertises are used they will be able to pay off all the debts of Pakistan after the completion of two housing projects only.

Well it was quite a detailed project so i was very precise in this post

yes those housing projects were in islamabad and rawalpindi and according to him at that time he can bring more then 40 billion dollars investment

in 2005 there was news about 35 billion dollar real estate project in pipe line by bahria town and some malaysian company ...

Bahria Town claims to have US$ 35 billion projects in the pipeline!


[RealEstate] Bahria Town claims to have US$ 35 billion projects in the p

 

[IMADreamer]

Great person.
Hope some of the rich in India learn from him.

Can someone post his interview video,i'd really like to watch that.

Thanks in advance

 

[Patrician]

ISLAMABAD // Malik Riaz Hussain, a billionaire Pakistani developer, has responded to the misery of millions of his flood-stricken compatriots by pledging to spend 75 per cent of his fortune on rebuilding their lives.

The extraordinary offer was made in a television interview in which he told how he had sent a letter before the floods to 100 of Pakistan’s most wealthy and powerful people asking them to pool money into a fund to repair homes, provide vocational training and extend microfinance loans to impoverished Pakistanis.

Mr Hussain is the chairman of Bahria Town, a US$6 billion (Dh22bn) urban development enterprise that has built gated communities for a million people in the central cities of Lahore and Rawalpindi.

Bahria Town has already responded to the current floods by vastly expanding a corporate social responsibility programme called dastarkhwan, or dining spread, to provide two meals a day to more than 150,000 flood refugees in inundated areas and free medical care at mobile hospitals.

Its housing projects, unrivalled in Pakistan as models of highly desirable but affordable suburban living, have revolutionised Pakistan’s real-estate sector over the last decade by targeting the previously untapped middle class, rather than the rich.

The huge popularity of the Bahria Town brand has made Mr Hussain, at the age of 62, one of a handful of Pakistanis believed to be billionaires in US dollar terms, although this cannot be verified as he has never released his tax records.

A man of unremarkable origins, Mr Hussain espouses traditional family values, and has expressed them in the modern family-friendly suburbs he has built.

Reproductions of famous landmarks, such as London’s Trafalgar Square, the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty, point to his aspirations for Pakistan, while beautiful mosques and Quranic calligraphy suggest that modernity is in harmony with Muslim beliefs.

Drawing on that experience, and with a fleet of 2,500 earth-moving machines, Mr Hussain sees the reconstruction of the almost one million homes destroyed or damaged in the floods as a matter of numbers.

Nearly all the destroyed homes have been simple two-room mud-brick constructs belonging to the poor that, by his reckoning, would cost 300,000 rupees each to rebuild, with enough left over to buy a few head of livestock.

“That’s all it will take to give them back their lives,” he said.

Mr Hussain quickly calculates aloud the maths and remarks that the requisite $3.5bn could easily be raised if Pakistan’s wealthy elite, named in his list of letter recipients, were to match his pledge of donating 75 per cent of his wealth with half of their personal fortunes.

However, his letter was not written as a desperate appeal to their better nature.

Rather, it issues a stern warning that the floods could exacerbate social tensions between Pakistan’s moneyed elite, a tiny percentage of the country’s 170 million people, and the impoverished half of the population that the United Nations said did not know where their next meal was coming from.

In the letter, Mr Hussain said the ostentatious lifestyles of Pakistan’s wealthy and their indifference to the plight of the poor were disturbingly reminiscent of social conditions before the French and Iranian revolutions, which occurred nearly 200 years apart.

“It is time that we realise our duty towards Pakistan. If we are unable to see the imminent consequences of our continued ignorance, I am scared that not only our families, but also our businesses, will fuel a bloody revolution,” Mr Hussain wrote.

“This is a clear warning to land barons, politicians, bureaucrats and industrialists to shed their sloth and wake up before all is lost, and there is no place to hide.”

Mr Hussain is not a conspiracy theorist; his prediction is based on his experience of housing orphan students from the Jamia Hafsa seminary in Islamabad, the setting in July 2007 for a bloody stand-off between security forces and militant clerics that ended in the deaths of more than 100 people.

The deaths of the students, many of them children from the Swat valley, caused nationwide outrage, decisively turned public opinion against Gen Pervez Musharraf, then the president, and ignited a Taliban insurgency that, until the success of military counteroffensives last year, threatened to overwhelm the government.

Mr Hussain says he has been deeply disappointed that his letter has failed to evince a single response to date, and is unhappy that his offer to place the Bahria Town fleet of earth-moving machinery at the government’s disposal has been ignored. “I have stepped in to help my people, but I cannot do this alone,” he said

But he is not a man accustomed to taking no for an answer, and has vowed to lobby those who have been sent the letter.

“At this time, what I need is support from fellow Pakistanis who, like me, have earned a fortune from the motherland and are indebted to it,” he said.

“Trust me, it’s time to pay back to our country.”

Somebody tell this to those extremists blowing innocent people up. "It is deeds like these which are dear to allah and which take one to heaven"

 

[faisaljaffery]

If all the wealthy people of Pakistan start thinking like that and pay atleast their due share of Zakat, the scanario of Pakistan will be totaly changed and there will be no poor in our country. This is the beauty of Islam which has given a good system of Zakat which creates equiliblium amongst the society

 

[Nishan]

Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him said:

((Good will remain in my nation Until the Day of Resurrection))
الخير باق في أمتي الى يوم القيامة

 

[SpArK]

Gem of a human being.. Wish there are more people like him.. salute

 

[qaisar52]

I hope every Pakistani Now think like this and he will also kept his words. Allah give us the strength to say truth and stand with truth.
Ameen,

 

[Machoman]

no use with this corrupt politician sitting. they will eat it all.

 

[BATMAN]

no use with this corrupt politician sitting. they will eat it all.

You are right, if govt. would be interested in rehabilitation they can announce tax exemption for such people.
Import duties and general taxes are biggest hinderence in the way of relief support.
Indian goods are openly smuggled (zero revenue) and sold in Pakistan market, while no tax/duty relief has been announced for the relief goods.
Floods have become a blessing in disguise for corrupt govt. as it is a reason for them to mint money on every (private) aid shipment.
I'm sure Mr.10% will be quite excited with the profit he is generating out of the flood aid.
Zardari khappay.

 

[AliFarooq]

Chairman Bahria Town donates US$ 2 billion to flood victims

As nation we have the strength to face any difficulty and hardship. We know how to live and die with dignity. In this time of crisis you should either help us or leave us alone to fight the circumstances

Promises 75% of his assets for public welfare;

A man who has alone pledged more than double the amount USD 700 million donated by foreign aid agencies: Richard Quest's introduction of Malik Riaz Hussain

Extract from Interview with CNN International

Chairman Bahria Town, Malik Riaz Hussain has announced the donation of 75% of all his assets for the relief and rehabilitation of flood victims. In an exclusive interview with CNN International on Quest Means Business, prime time business show, Malik Riaz Hussain announced the unprecedented amount of US$ 2 Billion to the cause of helping the victims and elaborated the severity of the calamity damaging the agriculture and economy of the country throughout impacting business and trading activities by up to 60 percent. When the chief anchor person at CNN, Richard Quest reconfirmed whether Malik Riaz Hussain would donate US$ 2 billion, he reaffirmed that he would contribute much more than that amount. This is more than double the amount USD 700 million donated by foreign aid agencies.

In his exclusive interview with CNN, Chairman Bahria Town dwelled on the massive poverty the country is facing and the relevant social issues that arise out of it and reiterated his recent appeal to all billionaires of Pakistan to come forward and help their country. According to him, “If 140 rich Pakistanis come together and commit to alleviating poverty, then this grave national problem could be solved within days.” In this regard, he personally committed to give away 75% of all his wealth to charitable causes within Pakistan.

Malik Riaz Hussain said that if Pakistan gets US$ 25 million, it will be enough for the construction of 10 thousands homes which not only accommodate 80,000 people but will also provide them facilities of education, healthcare & entertainment. He elaborated Bahria Town can construct a house in USD 4,000 only. He said if approached Bahria Town will construct these houses on no profit basis. Infact he is ready to donate more from his pocket for this cause. He suggested a special team should be established to monitor funds utilization & quality of the houses being constructed.

Speaking of Bahria Town’s ongoing efforts for the poor, Malik Riaz Hussain mentioned that his company presently provides 150 thousand free daily meals, free Healthcare to 80 thousand individuals, everyday. They are also providing them relief goods including tents, utensils, daily items etc. He said “ And I am ready to spend my each every penny for this purpose, because if my people are out of food, out of houses, I cannot sleep. ”