Ispahani family in Pakistan

Mirza Ahmad Ispahani (Urdu: ) or M A Ispahani was the first and longest serving chairman of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) from its inception until 1962. In the days when Pakistan was still in the offing (June 1946) Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, requested Mr. M.A. Ispahani, a leading industrialist, to set up a national airline, on priority basis. Orient Airways Ltd., registered in Calcutta city of British India on 23 October 1946 was established by Mr. M.A. Ispahani. After independence of Pakistan, Orient Airways transferred its base to Pakistan and established the vital, link between Karachi and Dacca, the two capitals of the two wings of Pakistan. Orient Airways was a privately owned company, with limited capital and resources. It could not be expected to grow and expand on its own. It was then that the Government of Pakistan decided to form a state-owned airline and invited Orient Airways to merge with it. The outcome of the merger was the birth of a new airline, named Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) on 11 March, 1955. PIA's wide-body aircraft maintenance hangar at Jinnah International Airport in Karachi has been named in honor of Mr. Mirza Ahmad Ispahani. Haji Mohammed Hashem (1789-1850) the founder of The House of Ispahani, moved from Ispahan (now Esfahan), Persia to Bombay in 1820 and established what was to become one of the most respected business concerns of the Sub-Continent. The Ispahani family subsequently expanded to include a broad range of businesses stretching from Bombay in the west, to Madras in the south and Burma in the east. His grandson Haji Mirza Mehdy Ispahani (1841-1913) moved the corporate headquarters to Madras. He also spent twelve years in Cairo expandin... More: http: //booksllc.net/?id=4725457