Twirp : Terrorist Wahabi Islamic Republic Pakistan 2

[Naresh]

<b>Pakistan pioneer passenger car bites the dust</b>

KARACHI : The odds were seemingly stacked against Feroz Khan when he was born to homeless migrants from India, but the span of 59 years has changed matters. Khan grew up in Lalukhait, one of the lower income areas in Karachi, but has nonetheless travelled far and wide, working in Saudi Arabia, England, and the United States.

After returning to Pakistan, he later became the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Adam Motor Company Ltd, maker of Pakistan’s car, the Revo. This plant was forced to close down, but adjacent to it stands another one of Khan’s factories: Omar Jibran (OJ) Engineering Services, the largest supplier of original car parts to Toyota, Honda and Suzuki in Pakistan.

OJ Engineering is the result of a lifelong struggle for Khan.

“I had a very humble beginning,” he says. One of six siblings, Khan studied at a government school. He earned a scholarship to DJ College, and then another to NED University, from where he graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering. After a bad job experience at Karachi Port Trust, Khan decided to move abroad.

Borrowing $300 from a sister, in 1972, he began an arduous journey to Germany by bus. On the way, he paid a visit to shrines in Kabul, Herat, Mashhad, Tehran, Kirmanshah, and Baghdad in the hopes that it would get him a job. However, this was when members of Israel’s Olympic team were killed by Palestinian militants, causing Germany to stop issuing visas. Four months after being on the road and with only $100 in hand, Khan had to come back to Beirut.

Eventually, his luck turned for the better. Without having anyone sponsor him, he managed to get a visa for Saudi Arabia, and got a well-paid job in Saudi Aramco. By the time he left Saudi Arabia in 1978, Khan has earned enough to buy 42.5 per cent shares of a company in England that made thread protectors for oil pipes.

After two years in England, he moved to Houston, Texas and set up a company called Tubular Protection of America. He has not looked back since. He eventually returned to Pakistan, and in 1990, established OJ Engineering, which manufactured car parts for Pak Suzuki Motors. His reputation started to grow and soon, other car assemblers became his customers.

“Pakistan’s auto industry has come a long way,” said Khan. “There was a time when we used to make only tyres, car batteries, seats, and wiring harnesses. Now, we make everything except for the transmission and engine.”

The auto industry, however, is facing a slowdown, and according to Khan, the government needs to bring political stability for it to make a turnaround. Had time remained on his side, he believes he would have taken the country a step further by making engines.

“I am not defeated,” declared Feroz Khan. “What does not break you makes you stronger.” Three years ago, Pakistan launched its first car, the snub-nosed Revo manufactured by Adam Motor Company Ltd, but deteriorating law and order, inconsistent government policies, and a bad business decision forced the plant to close.

Launched in 2005, the Revo had an edge over its competitors. With the exception of the engine and transmission system, all its parts were manufactured locally, rendering it the cheapest car in the market and the pride and joy of Feroz Khan.

The then finance minister Shaukat Aziz had inaugurated the plant in 2003. Even today, outside the closed factory gates of Adam Motors in Bin Qasim Industrial Estate, there is still a plaque carrying the announcement of the inauguration. Three months before the launch of the Revo in 2005, Shaukat Aziz, who had become Prime Minister by then, promised Khan that the car would be on list of the government’s purchases.

“And since it would have been the cheapest, the government would have been able to buy 5,000 to 10,000 cars a year,” recalled Khan ruefully. However, before even the first car was rolled out, the roads became crowded with more efficient imported vehicles.

The Revo was not purchased by the government, and the plant where it was manufactured eventually had to close.

One of Khan’s mistakes was that he did not arrange for a financier before the car was launched. He had believed that the word of the Prime Minister would be enough. “I have learned my lesson. No one should ever trust a political appointee,” said Khan in an interview with The News.

With no investor and few orders in hand, Khan had little money available for aggressive marketing. Eventually, he found a Kuwaiti investor willing to help. However, this was when the ongoing political crisis in the country with suicide bombings and assassinations began.

“He waited for two years for situation to improve,” said Khan of the investor. “The same thing happened to another investor from Dubai. Why would anyone invest here when Pakistanis themselves are shifting their capital abroad?” Today, Khan is still searching for someone who will buy the plant that closed down, but he has been able to come to terms with its closure.

“Looking back, I feel that to have a dream, to try it and fail is much better than to never have tried at all,” he said.

Cheers <!--emo&:beer--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' /><!--endemo-->