rote The Islanc ee tl end ik Upal Travel Po) Led a8, NAVIGATE Home » Faszes Investigating a Pakistani investor in Sri Lanka ‘My Pakistani Experience - 3 Sel Lankan staff of Packages Lanka witn Syed Hyder All ang Asshar Abbas In Pakistan The sprawl of Packages Lt. n populous Lahore ackagas Ltd, Lahore with ts rose garden inte foreground Packages Lanka by DarshanieRatnawall: Syed Aslam Mahdi Woks ruthless. Hef dak, which snot usual fora Punjabi, ar £01 tink eying on Inv liited knowledge of Pakistan. “Are you Punjabi? I ask him, at his Lahore residence with a glass tf wie wine in my hands "No, tam trom Karachi" he answar holing Mis wn gage It hows, tel nim, meaning that i exolins his dark looks, knowing thot cOuS also exon his personaly, “what wil you have?" ne Na asked, the convivial hestdspensinghasptaty with a bert han. When T demurely 25K for 2 jie, thinking the of of alehel was perhaps 2 joke or some sort of socal tas, he reminds me of my duty to uphold the mage of Sv Lanka. AS {dscharge my national ‘ty, Lk him Fhe has tested our national ink, Sr Lankan arrac, He has, whic snot to be "wondered at considering his five years in Sr Lanka as te head of Packages Lanka, the SriLankan operation of Syed Babar Al, an industrials, famous fr his svial entrepreneurship, int ventures, {or being a member of Pakistan's 22 and fo funding the Lahore Univers of Management Sciences Like New Yorks 400, the phrase coined by Ward Melts inthe 19th entur te denote the number of people in New York who fel at ease a ball rom, Pakstan's 22s the numberof fails that were supposedly running Pakistan and utzing most of the bank mney to grow their empires a the time Zuber Al Shuto came to power and nationalized thir Susinesees, Syed Sabar Al seems to Be “aiming, n 8 way whieh makes it hard to tll if hes in est or earnest, that he saved Packages Lt ‘rom being nationalized by consenting tobe nationalzee hme, meaning tha forfour years under [AV Bhutto, helt Packages Lt, and Meade a naionalzed enterpris, the Fertilizer Corporation, Wiha is beyond cispute fs that Packages Ltd, young Syed Babar Al's fst entrepreneur baby - born in 1957 asa joint venture between Aerlund Rausing, Sweden and All Group, the Babar Al family business with its origins the 15th century - was never nationalized. It came to Sri Lanka In 1996 ‘and through joint ventures with Merl. Fermande an Ravi Ravindran of Pintcare Group started ‘exo packaging plant called Packages Lanka, It wes while heading Packages Lanka anc enjoying the da glass of arrack in hs spare tine that Syed Aslam Meal acaured his reputation for rahlessness, “This evening, we wil be Raving dinner withthe CEO of our paper mils, Mr Aslam Mahal” Asghar ‘Abbas had informed Dian and me thet moring immediately ater welcoming us to Packages Limited and just before sending us on the grand tour ofthe procucion lors. Packages Limite has we main ‘oncers, the 8 ta 8 packaging business and the consumer issue business. Asgher Abbas heads the packaging business and topeter withthe hea ofthe tise Business reports to te CEO of Packages, Syed Hyer Al, Syed Baber Al's son hie on the subject of sues, I hed netiend that Mrs. Baber All used paper napkins a her dinner ‘ble, As.n0 Si Lankan whose wealtn can be traced tothe 19th century would Use paper napkin at {ble nth guests for lunch, dinner or breaktost, nor would any SH Lankan star-clss dinning ‘etablenment have them atti abla servic and no reputable etluetta course in Sr Lanka woul even mention them in connection with laying ofa table, this could mark 9 tle known cultural ‘ference betwean Sri Lanka and Pakistan Or could simaly be tat when you own the business \weien hes developed the facing tissue and nygiene brand in Pakistan with 70% marketshare and effering 2 wide variety of paper table napkins for fing dining, you can't vary well use inen rapkins in Your onn home. Then agin ifthe Pakistan markt hadn't been receptive to paper napkins for fine ‘ining, tat range cout not nave been developed. Perhaps it's just tat the two countries lok to ‘ferent odestrs for ther Western orientation, Sr Lark at Britin and Pakstan at USA where paper ‘ble napkins seem to be more in ‘Asghar Abbas has been In Sr Lanka for to terms as Manaoing Director of Packages Lanka, fst two years in 2008 and 2006, the second two years in 2014 ond 2015.1 seems tobe almost» traction the Syed Babar Al conglomerate to appont top managers tothe Sr Lankan outzest in preparation {or appointing them to high postions in Pakistan, afer his four years i Sl Lanka, Asghar AbDOE as ‘appointed tothe board of packages in addition to be cha of ts packaging business 77718 hitp/wisland,klindex.php7page_cat=artcl-detalsSpage=artcle-detalscodo_ti Ser ECEY ST} erererporee) e-paper ‘Await Breaking News Last Undated Jan 06 2018 | 06:56 pm Breve | ankan en ll Sunday, 7 January 2018 (Curent se] ‘Set. th enue 2078 Turse, th erway 2018rote The Islanc “las the Sr Lankan business easy to manage? Si Lanka is going down in the Ease of Doing Business Westy, Jonny 2018 Index," I ask him, interested in comparing te actual experience of a random foreign investor with the index value. "There ae two ways to look at IF! compare the pre-war pered tothe post-war perog, pre 2008, twas a bt ditto get mold of things. Gut after that, te last ima, 2014, 2015 onday, tl amar 2018 ‘wert prety wel We dich find tical to get the things through” More ecies| Tsay, 274 January 2018 i he experence corruption? "Corruption sa ralative term, I's there in every courte, all around the worl IT compare the elghbouring counties, i was Sl O.K. lh SH Lanka, We cid re it ‘cut gt tings through.” ‘one thing Asghar Astas found relatively easy in Sr Lanka compared tothe neighbouring counties vas the eccessbity of the relevant authorities, "You can have acces to the minster, tothe secretaries, tothe departments. You can go and you can present your point of view, they would at leas sen, What happens later I.09 mert and isa matter of time. But accesity is there ond oopleIsten to you. So that gies you some comfort." ‘This accesilsy doesnot seem tobe government spactic. Sack n Si Lanka, the successor of [Asghar Abb8s,Sslman Faslur Rehman hed described his current business experience tome in near Idanscal words. Accraing to As25, Inthe naighbouring countries, I's ait aiuto get access tnd then for your pant af view tobe herd. I think iis more of [Sxl Lanka} being ¢ small county, ‘the business communty and government machinery running in 2 smal place; s> everyone knows every other one Have they experience the government tender process? Telinaly, trey have not "Our business is Bo ' and exports” How le the Si Lankan work fore, {ask im, surreptitiously edging clser tothe subject of Syed Aslam Meh. “We have 150 0 195 peole, permanent with few contracts. 1 preity smal and skllad work. Once you train the people, most of the time they stay with You, most Doople nave been with us for more than eight to 50 years. "But ofcourse Iteracy i ish, You nd people who can read, write, speak ané works Many times 1 ‘ive examples ere (tothe Pakistan staff), with gard tothe work behaviour [ofthe Sel Lankans) When they work, even it takes a ite longer, they would work propery.” “Uneard from a arver at Packages Lanka that one Pakistan! MD had to sack almost the entre Sx Lankan upper management before e let, was thal tue?” I 25k him, moving in forthe kl but leaving Unspoken the question "And were you that MO?” [Asghar Abbas answers, “It was my predecessor who had to pass through that ime, ut was nat rmalpractics or anything. You know on the performance base sometimes, you have to take calls ‘That’ par of business It may be only 2 coincidence trat tPappaned in one point of ime, But not the entire management, there were only twa senior managers whe had tego." [A Syed Aslam Mena’ house, our host offers Dians and me, drinks stand then @ ehaice, go lett ‘and jin the men or go right and jin the women, We go nght. Men and women st as SH groups — ‘thoueh there sno real segregation, several man visit the lis’ pat of the rowing rom and erat wit them, especialy the host, andthe women frequently mave out when they want to speak with thee husbones oi they wan to give the mien any food they cant nih ne ofthe advantages according to Ran akhtyan, a Bubbly Packages wife, of having a husband. According to Ms. Aslam Mehdi, tis type of mae-ferelefarmetion in company i wsuel end custamery, even tough segragaton of men and women at weddings Is a thing ofthe past in Pakistan- she has hard of such ‘weddings when he was o smal gi. Accarding to Khalid Abdul Quddus, Syed Aslam Mes arzctng Disctr, sting separately isnot so mucha custom asa convenient arrangement which ‘es the women the chance to catch up on gossip. Tis during gossip then, If that’s what small tale between women is cle, that! put a name and a ‘ace tothe legend ofthe rutless MD at Packages Linke “They ore sil talking sbout you in Sri Lan,” Fel the host nest time he vss, Syed! Aslary Mahe looks sashul ana sal-tfacing asf saying “Aw, shucks, ma'am." He doesn’ realy lock ruthless, xcept f you projected Actualy, he fone of the mast genial hosts {have seen, When Task if seshol Isat taboo fora Muslim, ne Gocsnt draw himself up and leck haughty as @ Suddhist host might wel have done f remines thers i 8 daly precept against leona he is supposed to keep. Me merely ‘says, "There are good Musims ana bad Muslims “o be sure in Pakistan, alcanal ls mare of & national taboo than here, According to Intsar Ames Sulery, the Press Attaché a the Pisani High Commission in Colo, they don't host cocktails ‘and when invites by other embassies, go ana sip non-aleaholc beverages. “What do people wea a Pakstan wen they go out to night cis?” I asked him the last time I met him. "There are no night tubs, he saa. According to Or. Anjum Fayyaz, of LUMS, School of Business, nowadays, in Pakistan, ‘you wil se poope ining in sme restaurant even at 3.3m. nthe mening. And in those restaurants, Saadia R. Bukhara shopping mall specs, forms me, one wil see women in bockless drosres, from the kindof high fashion branes housed in Packages Mal, 21-4 millon so shopping malls Lahore, whose profiled customer i female and earning 150,000 Pakistan’ Rupees @ ‘month. The mal was bull on land let vacant when the Packages paperboard mil -the very some Syed Aslam Mandi the CEO of shftad to ales residential plac 60 km away from Lahore, "You see, Pakstan has gone trough a transformation. Right up tothe Severe, Pakistan was general avery Iberal socoty,” Syed Aslam Mh rmarks htpwwisland ikiindex.php7page_cat=artcl-detalsSpag 77718 218rote The Islanc Uke Tan?" | suggest “Perhaps. Even batter than that ‘there wore night libs and snd There was casino,” Mrs. Aslam end who alo from Karach seins in “No asin," asserts her husband But they were planing to he ‘amends aut there ware night cubs," ‘syed Aslam Mehl resumes. "and twas very young, I could read in the papers, tosh arrivals {rom Bangkok, China, and 1 ‘thought, 1 grow up and Tl oo ‘ther. When Trew up everyting was banned.” “Aut, Teel your pain Ran Basetiar eis, almost screeches in mack empathy. “At least Lm honest about In Pokstan, we n3¢ open Bas, in ‘the hotels, there were shops You ‘an buy quer. It was a very open society. What happened ‘was Zular Rb Bute got hunted by the clergy for vorious ‘things. And just to please the ‘deray, he ais everthing whieh he dic not aleve i. He banned Bleahol he woul nk everyéay ‘and ne anne al these night Se ee ‘bs. He was actual bulng © huge casino in Karachi right on the Beachtort. The lee at tet ‘ime was t bringin Miele Ester maney. If this tide in Karahi adn’ been ture! by Bhults there wouldnt have been any ‘70 BE CONTINUED. le vs 960 5 Sendo Fn EE Ee Stor by Laas, hitplwwuisland,klindex.php7page_cat=artcl-detallsSpage=artcle-detalls&code_thle=177718 38