NRB member for free market
The Nation
Islamabad (APP): Mohammad Ali Khan, Member Reconstruction Bureau (NRB), Wednesday said that the country’s future lies with free market economy and devolution of power to the local level.
The government of General Pervez Musharraf, backed by the people and with inputs from professionals and the think tank, is working towards these objectives,” he added.
Talking to APP he said that he was working with NRB under chairmanship of Lt. General (retd) Tanveer Naqvi, with the sole aim of applying his diversified experience in the United States as an Islamic Investment banker and an active participant in the American political process.
He said that he had established a scholarship fund in 1995 and spent seven million dollars for the higher education of Muslim students in America. He has also secured freedom for over 700 Muslim children working under bonded labor around the world by paying for their freedom.
He donated 15 million for the benefit of the Muslim causes in America. Since his arrival in Pakistan less than 10 months earlier, Khan has set up two scholarship funds that have already paid for the education of 65 Pakistani students. He has contributed over Rs 6.5 million for building and improving schools in the country so far.
Khan, a self-made man had left the country at the age of 18. Coming from modest family he paid for his own education, by working odd jobs.
He showed his entrepreneurial skills while still at college by buying two video rental franchises that he later sold for a profit. His subsequent achievements in the financial sector and politics can best be described as a Pakistani success story.
Starting his career in the financial field at the age of 22 years, Mohammad Ali Khan became Junior Vice president at the Prudential Investment Bank by the time he was 24 years old- the youngest in American history as a Muslim. He started his own investment bank by the time he was 28. His was the first fully owned Muslim investment Bank out of 7700 such banks in the United States.
Khan observed that he promoted Islamic Banking in the US and was soon recognized as a authority of Islamic banking in that country. He developed the world’s first Islamic Banking Benchmark Index covering 40 countries currently adopted and run by Dow Jones and Company publishers of The Wall Street Journal whose index is used to measure the rise and fall of the New York Stock Exchange.
Replying to a question about a recent New York Times article which accused him of exaggerating his achievements and claimed he was under investigation for fraud, Mohammed Ali Khan said “the NYT article does not suggest or imply that I ran away with any amount of money as reported by some sections of the Pakistan Press.
He explained that under American investment banking regulation all client funds for small sized investment banks, such as his, were kept with larger sized investment banks that act as Clearing Agents.
“No individual, executive or investment bank employee has access to any client funds. All funds of my bank were kept at Societe General Cowen, The clearing firm for my investment bank and Societe General Cowen executed all financial transactions while we collected a small fee for our investment advice,” he added.
Khan pointed out that he had sold two of his properties in the US during the past three months, something he would not have been able to do if he had been accused of financial fraud.
He said, “Mine was diversified holding company with four subsidiaries with tremendous growth record. Eichler Bergsman and Company LLP, an independent audit firm located in New York performed an independent audit and certified the revenue growth of our company. It certified that our revenues started at $ 995,670 in 1995, progressed to $ 21.59 million in 1996. Our audited revenues had reached $ 31.7 million 1997 and $ 53.9 million in 1998.”
