Sahgal family
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The Sahgal family is a Punjabi Shaikh business family of Punjab, Pakistan.
Sahgals belong to the Sahgal clan of Muslim Khatris tribe. Amin Sahgal, the founder of the Sahgal family was from village Khotian in Chakwal District. This village is now known as Sahgalabad. He migrated to Kolkatta in 1890 where he started a shoe shop which later transformed into Kohinoor Rubber works in 1938. It was one of the biggest rubber manufacturing concerns of South Asia.
Amin Sahgal had four sons, of which three Yousuf Sahgal, Bashir Sahgal and Saeed Sahgal migrated to Pakistan in August 1947, but fourth Gul Sahgal stayed back in India taking care of the leftover business until it was expropriated by Indian government, as an enemy property in the Indo-Pakistan war of 1965.
The biggest undertaking of the family was the Kala Shah Kaku Industrial Complex near Lahore. They also launched United Bank in 1959. When Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1973 nationalized heavy industries, family lost 70% of their assets. During Bhutto era, Sahgals moved out of Pakistan and launched Conforce Construction Comapany in collaboration with Germany's Veba Group.
In 1976, Sahgals split into distinct groups headed by Nasim Sahgal, Tariq Saeed Sahgal and Rafiq Sahgal. (Rafiq Sahgal died on December 10, 2005). Nasim Sahgal heads Pakistan's largest group in engineering goods industries. It is the biggest manufacturer of air conditioners, deep freezers, and electric goods supplied to Water and Power Development Authority.
[edit] References
- Shahid-ur-Rehman, "Who Owns Pakistan?", online publication
