THIS is apropos of Irfan Hussain’s letter (Jan 27) in response to mine (Jan 22). His mention of Agha Hasan Abidi is out of place because Abidi was neither an industrialist nor a businessman.

He was a career banker who had scores of philanthropic projects to his credit.

It must be remembered that industialist families such as Adamjees, Dawoods, Ispahanis, Bawanys, and Habibs were in the forefront of the Pakistan Movement and they contributed towards nation-building and bank-rolling in the earlier stages of our nascent state when its coffers were empty.

But these families had been weakened by 1972 and in their place was born a highly-opportunistic coterie whose only intentions (with some notable exceptions) were profiteering and transferring money to offshore banking havens and nothing more.

RAFI AHMED
Karachi