BULEJI/KARACHI – PAKISTAN: Government authorities in Karachi have dealt a major blow to foreign investment by demolishing a property owned by American investors without warning.
News coming to hand is that property located on four lots in the Buleji, Hawksbay area of Karachi has been demolished by authorities and they failed to inform the owners Maq Investment Group and their Pakistani counterparts.
Mahammad Qureshi chairman of CEO of the Maq Investment Group an American-based company was left very disappointed saying it is a sad day for foreign investment into Pakistan when acts like this are allowed to go on. Qureshi explained what transpired. “About 15 years ago we purchased four lots with a building on it through my uncle Hashmat Ali Siddique and my brother Iqbal Qureshi and Sarfaraz Ahmed Manager (MAQ Group Pak) in the Hawksbay area.
“The plan was to construct a luxury Holiday Inn Express hotel that would have obviously brought in more foreign investment and also employment to local people. Our Maq Group which is a powerful group here in the United States wanted to give back by investing in Pakistan.
“The hotel was not constructed because of all the chaos in Pakistan over the period. There were killings and robberies and we thought that tourists would not have felt safe. We were waiting until things settle down and we thought that was happening with the new regime under Prime Minister Imran Khan. The plan was always there to construct the hotel but in the meantime, we were taking care of the existing building.”
Qureshi revealed that very heavy investment was made and it has now gone down the drain. “They did not even send any notification that they were moving into the land to destroy it. The land is on the beach and the plans we have would have made this great. By these actions what message are they sending to investors around the world, especially America?”
An angry Qureshi added that he was not going to take this easily and he would be writing to Prime Minister Khan to highlight what is happening. “I don’t think the Prime Minister would take to this lightly because he has been trying his best to bring in foreign investment. If this matter is not brought to a reasonable end I intend to highlight it all over the world through media because actions like this can only hurt the people of Pakistan.”
