Muhammadi Steamship Company Limited was one of the oldest locally owned shipping companies in Pakistan until it was nationalised in the early 1970s.
History
The company was incorporated on 12 May 1947 .[1] In 1949, it became the first Pakistani shipping line to be publicly listed on the Karachi Stock Exchange.[2]
Muhammadi House on McLeod Road (now I. I. Chundrigar Road) was the headquarters of the company.[3]
Muhammad Ali Habib and Kasim Dada were major share holders of the company till 1959–1960. However, after their departure from the scene, company went into deep financial crisis. Fakhruddin Valika of the Valika family later on acquired the major stake in the company.[4] Under the Valika family's leadership, the company built Al-Abbas, which was the first major ship to be built in Karachi Shipyard.[5] The company was nationalized by the Government of Pakistan under then President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. It was later merged with other Pakistani nationalized shipping companies to create the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation.
Ships
| Ship | Built | Tonnage | Builder | In Service | Fate | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Al Murtaza Ali | 1942 | 7235 GRT | West Coast Shipbuilders, Vancouver as 'Fort Norman' | 1948 - 1954 | Sold in 1954 to United Oriental Steamship Company, Karachi and renamed ANWARBAKSH | |
| Husaini later Al Husaini | 1943 | 7157 GRT | North Vancouver Ship Repairers Ltd., North Vancouver as 'Fort Clatsop' | 1948 - 1968 | Broken up at Karachi in November 1968 | Renamed in 1949 |
| Ahmadi later Al Ahmadi | 1920 | 5186 GRT | Todd Dry Dock & Construction Company, Tacoma as 'Pallas' | 1948 - 1954 | Broken up at Karachi in 1954 | Renamed in 1949 |
| Al Hasan | 1943 | 7165 GRT | North Vancouver Ship Repairers Ltd., North Vancouver as 'Fort St. Antoine' | 1949 - 1964 | Broken up at Karachi in February 1964 | |
| Colima later Al Chisti | 1917 | 1306 GRT | Sodra Varfvets Nya A/B, Stockholm as 'Svealand' | 1949 - 1954 | Broken up at Karachi in 1954 | Renamed in 1950 |
| Al-Sayyada | 1944 | 7165 GRT | Victoria Machinery Depot Company, Victoria B.C. as 'Hastings Park' | 1952 - 1967 | Broken up at Karachi in November 1967 | First ship to dry dock at Karachi Shipyard.[2][6] |
| Al Ahmadi | 1940 | 5361 GRT | Lithgows Ltd., Port Glasgow as 'Risaldar' | 1958 - 1966 | Broken up at Karachi in June 1966 | |
| Al-Abbas | 1967 | 6087 GRT | Karachi Shipyard | 1967 - 1971 | Sunk on 16 August 1971 in Operation Jackpot by the Mukti Bahini commandoes at Chittagong | First merchant ship built at Karachi Shipyard.[2][6] |
See also
References
- ↑ Malik, Iftikhar Ahmed, "History of Pakistan Merchant Navy 1947- 2009" Karachi 2010 (privately published) pg 5
- 1 2 3 Malik, Iftikhar Ahmed, History of Pakistan Merchant Navy 1947- 2009 Karachi 2010 (privately published) pg 6
- ↑ Malik, Iftikhar Ahmed, History of Pakistan Merchant Navy 1947- 2009 Karachi 2010 (privately published) pg 7
- ↑ Papanek, Hanna (1972). "Pakistan's Big Businessmen: Muslim Separatism, Entrepreneurship, and Partial Modernization". Economic Development and Cultural Change. 21 (1): 1–32. doi:10.1086/450605. JSTOR 1152902. S2CID 86853602.
- ↑ "Rise and fall of Karachi's Valika family (Part 1)".
- 1 2 Malik, Iftikhar Ahmed, "History of Pakistan Merchant Navy 1947- 2009" Karachi 2010 (privately published) pg 8
- "Items in India/Pakistan/Bangladesh - Report of the high level consultants mission to Bangladesh" (PDF). United Nations. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 July 2011. Retrieved 26 July 2011.