Tariq Sayeed Saigol

Chairman of Kohinoor Maple Leaf Group, Tariq Sayeed Saigol is a member of the reputed Saigol clan, which have remained Pakistan's wealthiest industrial clan ever since the birth of country despite the fluctuations in their fortunes and a brief interlude (1972-77) during which they tried their luck in Saudi Arabia.

Saigols have pioneered in Textile manufacturing after partition and later ventured into the financial sector, chemicals, synthetic fibres, sugar, edible oil refining, civil engineering, construction, cement and energy.

Sayeed Saigol had his early education at Aitchison College, Lahore and graduated from Government College, Lahore following which, he studied Law at University Law College, Lahore.

He started his career in 1968 at Kohinoor’s Chemical Complex at Kala Shah Kaku. Upon trifurcation of the Group in 1976, he became Chief Executive of Kohinoor Textile Mills Limited, Rawalpindi. Since 1984, he has been Chairman of Kohinoor Maple Leaf Group which has interests in textiles, energy and cement manufacturing.

He has been Chairman All Pakistan Textile Mills Association in 1992-94, President of Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry for 1995-97 and Chairman, All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association from 2003-2006.

Tariq Sayeed Saigol has been a member of the Federal Export Promotion Board and Central Board of State Bank of Pakistan. He has also served on several Government Commissions and Committees on a number of subjects, including Export Promotion, reorganization of WAPDA and EPB, Right Sizing of State owned Corporations and Resource Mobilization. He is the author of Textile Vision 2005 which was adopted by the Government in 2000 and its critique prepared in 2006.

He takes keen interest in the development of education in Pakistan. He has been a member of the Board of Governors of Lahore University of Management Sciences, Founding Chairman of Governors of Chandbagh School, founder Trustee of Textile University of Pakistan, member of the Syndicate of University of Health Sciences and presently serves on the Board of Governors of Aitchison College. He is conferred with Sitara-e-Isaar by President of Pakistan in 2006.

Presently Tariq Sayeed Saigol is a Board member of the State Bank of Pakistan. He is also a member of the Economic Advisory Council, constituted by the Prime Minister, to provide independent advice to him on the formulation and implementation of economic policies and reform agenda.

Tariq Sayeed is a keen golfer and has represented Pakistan at Golf in Sri Lanka and Pakistan in 1967. He is married and has 3 children.

Saigol Clan:

The founder of Saigol dynasty, Amin Saigol was born in village Khotian, now Saigolabad in district Jehlum. He migrated to Calcutta in 1890, where he started a shoe shop which led the Bihar Rubber Works in 1938, later re-named as Kohinoor Rubber Works developing into one of the biggest rubber manufacturing concerns of pre-partitioned India.

Amin Saigol had four sons; Yusuf Saigol, Bashir Saigol, Saeed Saigol and Gul Saigol. At the time of partition in August 1947 three of them; Yusuf Saigol, Bashir Saigol and Saeed Saigol migrated to Pakistan but fourth Gul Saigol stayed back in India taking care of the leftover business until it was expropriated by Indian government, as enemy property in the 1965 war.

The Saigols have grown with country, setting up factory after factory, industry after industry. Their biggest project was Kala Shah Kaku Chemical Complex near Lahore which comprised five units namely Kohinoor Rayan Ltd, United Chemicals, Insecticides (Pakistan) Ltd, Kohinoor Oil Mills Ltd and Kohinoor Engineering Ltd. Starting with a textile mills in 1947, in less than two decades, they had their fingers in almost every business in Pakistan ranging from chemicals, synthetic fibres, cooking oil, sugar, engineering, construction and banking.

The Saigols launched United Bank in 1959 and when nationalized in 1974 it had 668 domestic and 31 overseas branches. All the five units of Kala Shah Kaku Complex were nationalized in 1971. According to Saigols, the family lost 70% of its assets in Bhutto's nationalization.

Only textile wing escaped nationalization but as Pakistan People's Party manifesto had envisaged the nationalization of big textile units also, no new investment was made in the textile industries during the six years of Bhutto rule.

Like many other Pakistani industrialists, the Saigols lived out the Bhutto era abroad, in Saudi Arabia where they launched Conforce Construction Company in collaboration with Germany's Veba Group who is said to have put up nearly 100 million dollars for trading in cement and other construction material in the Gulf countries. The management was entirely left with Saigols but the partnership quickly fell through.

In 1976 Saigols decided to split, apparently as a part of the strategy to spread the eggs in many baskets. The assets that had escaped nationalization comprising of textile mills at Faisalabad, Rawalpindi and Quetta, sugar mills at Jauharabad, Conforce Limited and Saigol Brothers limited were divided among 15 male descendants of the founding fathers.

The Saigols are currently operating in three distinct groups headed by Nasim Saigol, Tariq Saeed Saigol and Rafiq Saigol. Yusuf Saigol, who founded Kohinoor Textile Mills and United Bank Ltd was the moving force behind the Saigol dynasty. Yusuf Saigol had a big family, six sons and two daughters. Sons are Mohammad Rafiq, Mohammad Shafiq, Nasim, Javed, Azam and Aftab Saigol. One of the daughters Naz was married to Mian Mansha and the second to a cousin.

Bashir Saigol was assigned the managing directorship of Kohinoor Textile Mills (KTM), Rawalpindi and Conforce Limited. He is survived by son Iqbal Saigol, who heads his own small group. After the division of the family silver, KTM Rawalpindi came to the lot of Tariq Saeed Saigol who is now heading his own Kohinoor group.

Saigol group headed by Nasim Saigol is perhpas Pakistan's biggest group in engineering goods industry with projects on the anvil for a car assembly plant with Daewoo and motorcycle assembly plant with Qingqi group of China. It is also the biggest manufacturer of air conditioners, deep freezers and electric good supplied to WAPDA.