Pakistan flock Investors to Ajman

With rising dollar, increasing inflation, political uncertainty and high security risk, investors in Pakistan are looking elsewhere for efficient return on their investments. And, that elsewhere for now is, Ajman, UAE.As Suzanne Fenton of Gulf News, reports, Ajman is benefiting from the Pakistani developers flocking to the emirate in droves.

With an area of just 260 square kilometres, Ajman is the smallest of the seven emirates and the second emirate, behind Dubai, to offer freehold property. The current population of Ajman is a little over 360,000.

Hasnain Raza Lathubhai, partner at UAE-based development company, Skymax agreed the current political tensions in Pakistan are not helping business. He said there probably is a link between the situation and the increase in Pakistani money in UAE property projects. 

“To tell you the truth, things are pretty down. But Pakistan, if you look at its history, has gone through down periods like this before, and always comes out more expensive and more developed,” Lathubhai said.

There are countless Pakistani developers building in Ajman, obviously seeing it as the ideal place to plunge millions of real estate dirhams.

Chapal World, Sweet Homes, Property House and Al Barakah are just a handful of developers throwing themselves into a plethora of mega-projects taking shape all along the Emirates Road in Ajman and in Ajman city itself.

These projects include Emirates City, Humaid City, Ajman Uptown, Awali City and Al Zorah.

Combined, they have a total development cost of well over Dh250 billion. To support such massive development, the Ajman government is also implementing a $1.4-billion infrastructure plan designed to beef up investor confidence in the emirate.

“As the third largest property market in the UAE, Ajman offers very attractive prospects for Pakistani investors,” said Tahir Hussain, a vice president of the Pakistan Business Council in Dubai and also managing director of Schon Properties.

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Hussain attributed increasing investor attraction to Ajman to government plans to build an international airport, improve infrastructure and the development of a host of large-scale developments are all contributing to the future boom of the emirate.

Lathubhai said the business relationship between Pakistan and the UAE is “more than close,” due to the relaxed government policies and the well-known ease of doing business here.

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Pakistan’s popularity for real estate development can be clearly seen with the number of UAE developers looking across the water to Pakistan for lucrative development opportunities.

However, some developers wishing to expand in Pakistan have found it difficult to break into the market, with many pointing to the rising political tensions as the root cause.

UAE developer Limitless was recently in talks with the Pakistan government to develop the multi-billion Karachi Waterfront. However, discussions appear to have stalled for the time being for unspecified reasons.

In UAE ATM Card Fraud on rise

ATM and Credit Card frauds are on rise in UAE. Customers, of various banks in UAE, are complaining of cards being copied/hacked at ATM kiosks and used for transactions worth thousands of Dirhams.Gulf News report incidents where customers have lost thousands of Dirhams in ATM Card fraud. While some of them have been reimbursed by their banks, others still wait for an action.
Citibank, HSBC, Emirates NBD, Dubai Islamic Bank, National Bank of Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Lloyds TSB Middle East and Mashreq Bank are among those affected or see a potential threat that could affect their operations.

Both MasterCard and Visa issued statements saying that they are cooperating with the law enforcement authorities and the banking industry on the latest breaches. Almost all banks have sent alerts via SMS to their customers to change their PINs and in some cases asking them to remain vigilant by checking their balances every few days.

Dubai Bank, a Dubai Group company, said in a statement that 42 of their customers had been affected, and the claims will be refunded shortly. Ala’a Eraiqat, ADCB deputy chief executive, said thhe total amount could become higher but it is much less than Dh100,000 so far.

However, the banks and government officials are downplaying the severity of issue as usual, so that it may not threaten the expats to stop their bank dealings.

“The magnitude of the problem is not so big,” said Abdullah Qasim, chairman of Network International, a subsidiary of Emirates NBD.

ATM Card VIDEO

HSBC has instructed its customers via SMS to change their PIN numbers at any of its ATMs. While Lloyds TSB Middle East advised customers to remain vigilant and to contact their bank if they notice anything unusual about an ATM which could indicate a card reader or camera has been fixed.

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Mashreq Bank also updated its web site with a Security Alert, requesting customers to be cautious and keep their Emails, Mobile Phones and ATM Cards secure.

Modus Operandi of Islamic Banks

Let’s say someone is dying of thirst and does not have water to drink. You tell him that you have a water bottle but will only sell it to him if he pays you Rs.1000 otherwise he can go and die.

What will you think about that person in terms of being a human being and will the Rs.1000 be halal for him? Neither is that person close to what could be called a human nor is the Rs.1000 halal for him because money made after taking advantage of a person’s situation is haram.

The above case is similar to what these so called Islamic Banks are doing. They tell you that in order to avoid interest from regular banks you will have to pay the unreasonably high prices they charge or you can go to hell.

Are these banks Islamic? Not even close.

 Islamic Banks video

These wolves in sheep clothing will suck your blood if they have to, to earn money in the name of Islam. These disgusting and appaling schemers don’t care if you have 5 children and desperately need a house or a car. They don’t care if due to desperation you will end up looking for a haram means because your financial condition does not allow you to let them suck your blood.

They don’t give a damn about your eman, your family or your financial condition. They just want to sit on loads of money, like satans, without even caring whether it is halal for them or not.

A good muslim makes sure that he sacrifices his own good to stop his brother/sister from falling into sin. Considering this, Islamic Banks should be charging less or at least the same amount that regular banks charge to save muslims from indulging in interest. If these Islamic Banks were really Islamic, they would be charging less than regular banks do.

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If that is too difficult then at least the same. Only a person with satanic qualities would charge more under the banner of Islam. How dare they rip of poor muslims in the name of Islam. They should remove the word Islamic from the word banks. Do they even know the meaning of the word?

$220 Million Bring Alcohol Exports To Pakistan

Pakistan earned $220mn on export of 0.3mn tonnes of alcohol up to October 31 while another 50,000 tonnes of alcohol is expected to be exported during the November-December period.

Pakistan, where alcohol consumption by Muslims is banned by law, produced 2.6mn tonnes of molasses during the 2007-08 sugarcane crushing season and on adding 50,000 tons of carry-over stocks at terminals and an equal quantity at the mills, the total available stocks of molasses stood at 2.761mn tonnes.

Industry and export sources say since conversion ratio of molasses to alcohol stands at 5:1 (five tonnes of molasses required to produce one tonne of alcohol), the estimated requirement of distilleries stood at 1.65mn tonnes for molasses.

The sources said alcohol prices in the world market remained on the upper side during 2008 which enabled Islamabad to earn more foreign exchange through exports. After touching around $800 per tonne, alcohol prices receded back to $600 per tonne.

Consequently, on exporting around 312,000 tonnes up to October 31, 2008, at an average price of $725 per tonne, Pakistan managed to earn around $220mn through export of alcohol. According to industry sources, the country exported 190,585 tonnes of alcohol last year (2006-07) and earned $112mn at an average price $550 per tonne.

“With the advent of each sugarcane crushing season, Pakistan had been exporting millions of tonnes of molasses at throwaway prices to European countries and Japan,” Kasim Hashim, the chairman of the Terminal Association of Pakistan, said. However, for the last several years it is being converted into three grades of alcohol – fuel or anhydrous, neutral or extra neutral and industrial or rectified ethanol Hashim said presently 16 distilleries are operating in Pakistan at 60% capacity although as more and more distilleries are coming up every year, there has been a constant rise in export of alcohol.

$220 Million Bring Alcohol Exports To Pakistan

During 2004, Pakistan exported 99,711 tonnes of alcohol, but in the subsequent year, the figure jumped to 122,104 tonnes. After exporting around 255,812 tonnes last year (2007), Pakistan is now poised to export a record volume of 350,000 tonnes of alcohol this year (2008), he maintained. He said around 9,000 tonnes of alcohol had been exported this year through ISO containers which were the latest method for haulage of liquid cargo.

Hashim said that ISO containers/tank are filled with alcohol from distilleries and loaded on trailers for direct loading on to ships. These tanks are air-tight and expensive because they are first cleaned by steam and are used only after survey is carried out. The industry is encouraging use of ISO tanks because they are fast for haulage of liquid cargo and are also easy to handle. Presently they are mostly reaching Dubai, but in coming years will encourage their use for Middle East and Africa, he added.

$220 Million Bring Alcohol Exports To Pakista-II

Export of alcohol is being hindered by congestion at the Karachi Port where tanker ships have to wait for their turn for several days, resulting in heavy demurrage charges. This is also draining out valuable foreign exchange because demurrage is paid in dollars, TAP Secretary Sultan Ahmed said.

American meat exporters using fradulent halal certificates

According to a recent report, ninety-five per cent of American food items found in supermarket shelves in the UAE and some other Gulf countries are not halal even though they may be certified as such.

Halal (or permissible) in Islam is the meat of animals that have been slaughtered reciting the name of Allah on them and all the blood has been drained from the carcass.

Additional criterion that make meat halal are that the animal should not be dead prior to slaughter, since carrion is forbidden and that the animal is from those that are allowed according to Islamic teachings.

Nearly 1.8 billion Muslims around the world as well as some non-Muslims are fuelling the halal food industry, generating sales of $2.1 trillion annually, according to recent reports. The attractive halal food industry is drawing many dubious players.

Jalel Aossey, director of Midamar, a US-based international supplier of halal food and foodservice equipment, said that there is a significant flow of non-halal food items in the region from meat-supplying countries, and the Gulf countries need tougher regulations to stop that flow.

Noor Al Deen Abdullah, executive director of Kasehdia, a communications and consultancy company in Malaysia, and publishers of The Halal Food Journal earlier told Gulf News, “The global halal industry is still in its infancy because huge awareness is required, especially in the Middle East.”

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The major producing nations are Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and Canada, Abdullah said, from where halal and non-halal meat is supplied.

Aossey said that inspection teams can be sent to the various countries where food is being produced to allow it to be inspected, at that country’s cost. “This is nothing when you consider the huge dollar volume of food products exported to the UAE and other Gulf countries.”

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In the UAE, 80 per cent of imported food is said to be halal, coming from countries such as Brazil and Australia.