LAHORE (Hassan Raza) – The Economic Policy and Business Development think tank has released a list of Pakistan’s top 40 business groups, naming Fauji Foundation as the country’s number one with a market capitalization of $5.9 billion, 60% of which is owned by the public.
According to the Wealth Perception Index 2025, Sir Anwar Pervez ranks as Pakistan’s top businessman with $3.5 billion in equity investment, while Syed Babar Ali leads the list of private business groups.
Among 20 listed corporations, Fauji Foundation holds first place with a $5.9 billion market cap, followed by Sir Anwar Pervez’s Bestway Group at $4.513 billion. The third spot goes to Muhammad Ali Tabba’s group ($2.591bn), followed by Mian Muhammad Mansha ($2.399bn) and Hussain Dawood ($2.390bn).
The list also features leading names including Riaz Idris, Arif Habib, Sultan Ali Allana, Sohaib Malik, Nasir Mahmood Khosa, Sultan Ali Lakhani, Rafiq Muhammad Habib, Sheikh Mukhtar Ahmed, Iftikhar A. Shirazi, Amir Paracha, Aizaz Hussain, Abbas Habib, Muhammad Maqsood Ismail, Tariq Syed, and Jahangir Siddiqui.
On the billionaire business groups list, Syed Babar Ali takes the top spot, with other prominent figures including Fawad Mukhtar, Mian Abdullah, Sardar Yasin Malik, Dr Gohar Ejaz, Habibullah Khan, Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman, Syed Muhammad Javed, Aqeel Karim Dhedhi, Bashir Jan Muhammad, Mian Amer Mahmood, Nasreen Mehmood Kasuri, Jahangir Tareen, Peer Muhammad Dewan, Yaqoob Ahmed, Aleem Khan, Mian Ahsan, Ashraf Mucatee, Shahid Soorty, and Nadeem Malik.
The report highlights that these 40 billionaire groups form the backbone of Pakistan’s economy, contributing to GDP growth, job creation, and tax revenues. Economists stress that with greater government support and business-friendly policies, these groups can not only stabilize the economy but also generate millions of new jobs.
Economic experts underline that industrial growth is the key to national prosperity, noting that Pakistan possesses exceptional business talent. They argue that stronger public-private partnerships can help unlock the country’s true economic potential.
Business leaders expressed optimism about Pakistan’s future, calling for easier business regulations, improved partnerships, and removal of restrictive laws and policies that hinder growth.
Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar stressed the need for sustainable policies, stating that collaboration between the government and business groups could transform Pakistan’s economic destiny. He praised the think tank’s initiative, noting that examples from South Korea and Japan show how policy support for business groups leads to national prosperity.
Related Topics
Union activists hold placards, as they interrupt a press conference by Air Canada executives, ahead of a potential strike by Air Canada flight attendants, at a hotel in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, August 14, 2025.
Kyaw Soe Oo | Reuters
The union representing 10,000 striking Air Canada flight attendants said Sunday it will challenge an order for them to return to work, adding “we remain on strike.”
The Canada Industrial Relations Board ordered airline staff back by 2 p.m. ET Sunday after the government intervened and Air Canada said it planned to resume flights Sunday evening.
“We will be challenging this blatantly unconstitutional order,” the CUPE union said in a statement. “We remain on strike. We demand a fair, negotiated contract and to be compensated for all hours worked.”
The strike has stranded more than 100,000 travelers around the world during the peak summer travel season.
The country’s largest airline said early Sunday in a release that the first flights will resume later in the day but that it will take several days before its operations return to normal. It said some flights will be canceled over the next seven to 10 days until the schedule is stabilized.
Less than 12 hours after workers walked off the job, Federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu ordered the 10,000 flight attendants back to work, saying now is not the time to take risks with the economy and noting the unprecedented tariffs the U.S. has imposed on Canada. Hajdu referred the work stoppage to the Canada Industrial Relations Board.
The airline said the Canada Industrial Relations Board has extended the term of the existing collective agreement until a new one is determined by the arbitrator.
The shutdown of Canada’s largest airline early Saturday was impacting about 130,000 people a day. Air Canada operates around 700 flights per day.
According to numbers from aviation analytics provider Cirium, Air Canada had canceled a total of 671 flights by Saturday afternoon — following 199 on Friday. And another 96 flights scheduled for Sunday were already suspended.
The bitter contract fight escalated Friday as the union turned down Air Canada’s prior request to enter into government-directed arbitration, which allows a third-party mediator to decide the terms of a new contract.
Flight attendants walked off the job around 1 a.m. on Saturday. Around the same time, Air Canada said it would begin locking flight attendants out of airports.
Last year, the government forced the country’s two major railroads into arbitration with their labor union during a work stoppage. The union for the rail workers is suing, arguing the government is removing a union’s leverage in negotiations.
The Business Council of Canada had urged the government to impose binding arbitration in this case, too. And the Canadian Chamber of Commerce welcomed the intervention.
Hajdu maintained that her Liberal government is not anti-union, saying it is clear the two sides are at an impasse.
Passengers whose flights are impacted will be eligible to request a full refund on the airline’s website or mobile app, according to Air Canada.
The airline said it would also offer alternative travel options through other Canadian and foreign airlines when possible. Still, it warned that it could not guarantee immediate rebooking because flights on other airlines are already full “due to the summer travel peak.”
Air Canada and the Canadian Union of Public Employees have been in contract talks for about eight months, but they have yet to reach a tentative deal.
Both sides have said they remain far apart on the issue of pay and the unpaid work flight attendants do when planes aren’t in the air.
The airline’s latest offer included a 38% increase in total compensation, including benefits and pensions, over four years, that it said “would have made our flight attendants the best compensated in Canada.”
But the union pushed back, saying the proposed 8% raise in the first year didn’t go far enough because of inflation.
Soft Tissue Sarcoma | Image
Credit: © kamonrat –
stock.adobe.com
Pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (PLD) in combination with ifosfamide demonstrated manageable toxicity and encouraging clinical activity in patients with advanced soft tissue sarcoma, according to results from a phase 1, single-center, dose-escalation trial (ChiCTR1900028270).
Twenty-three patients were enrolled and treated using a 3+3 dose-escalation design, with PLD initiated at 30 mg/m² and increased in 5 mg/m² increments. Two patients experienced dose-limiting toxicities at 55 mg/m², and the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) was determined to be 50 mg/m² in combination with IFO at 3 g/m² per day on days 1 to 3. The most common grade 3/4 treatment-emergent adverse events included leukopenia (86.96%), neutropenia (82.61%), and lymphopenia (56.52%). Twelve patients elected to continue treatment beyond the dose-finding phase
Across all dose levels, the overall response rate (ORR) was 33.33% (95% CI, 9.92%-65.11%), and the disease control rate (DCR) was 83.33% (95% CI, 51.59%-97.91%).
“This regimen demonstrated a tolerable safety profile and promising efficacy, indicating potential benefits for patients with advanced soft tissue sarcoma,” lead study author Ting Ye, MD, of Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University, and colleagues wrote in the publication. “These preliminary findings necessitate further research to validate the efficacy and safety of this treatment over multiple cycles and to explore the full therapeutic potential of the regimen in this patient population.”
This single-center, dose-escalation study was conducted at Huazhong University of Science and Technology enrolled patients 18 to 70 years of age who had an ECOG performance status of 0 or 1, along with normal bone marrow hematopoietic and cardiac function. Enrollment required a diagnosis of advanced soft tissue sarcoma confirmed by two senior pathology experts. Patients with soft tissue sarcoma subtypes not amenable to PLD plus ifosfamide, including gastrointestinal stromal tumor, embryonal/acinar rhabdomyosarcoma, and Ewing’s sarcoma, were excluded.
The treatment regimen consisted of PLD in combination with ifosfamide at 3 g/m²/day on days 1 through 3. PLD was initiated at 30 mg/m² and escalated in 5 mg/m² increments to a maximum of 70 mg/m² using a standard 3+3 design. Recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (rhG-CSF) was administered 48 hours after chemotherapy completion.
The primary objective was to determine the MTD, defined as the highest dose level at which no more than 33% of patients experienced a DLT within the first 21 days of treatment. The secondary objective was to evaluate the safety profile of the regimen, characterized by the incidence and severity of AEs.
From January 2020 to September 2022, 23 patients were enrolled, including 12 males (52.17%) and 11 females (47.83%). The median age was 49 years (range, 30-68). Most patients (69.57%) had an ECOG performance status of 0, while 30.43% had a performance status of 1.
Disease stage at enrollment was advanced in the majority of cases, with 22 patients (95.65%) presenting with AJCC stage IV disease and 1 patient (4.35%) with stage III disease. The number of involved organs at baseline was 0 in 1 patient (4.35%), 1 organ in 16 patients (69.57%), and more than 1 organ in 6 patients (26.09%).
Tumor locations varied, with the most common being the legs (34.78%), followed by visceral sites (17.39%). Other locations included the arms (8.70%), back (8.70%), abdominal cavity (8.70%), hip (8.70%), neck or jaw (8.70%), and thorax (4.35%).
Histologic subtypes were diverse. Fibrosarcoma was the most frequent (17.39%), followed by synovial sarcoma (13.04%) and leiomyosarcoma (13.04%). Other subtypes included malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor (8.70%), undifferentiated sarcoma (8.70%), liposarcoma (4.35%), myxoid liposarcoma (4.35%), dedifferentiated liposarcoma (4.35%), epithelioid sarcoma (4.35%), unclassifiable STS with rhabdomyocyte differentiation (4.35%), pleomorphic rhabdomyosarcoma (4.35%), epithelioid hemangioendothelioma (4.35%), angiosarcoma (4.35%), and malignant granular cell tumor (4.35%).
Ye T, Fan L, Cao R, Peng L, Chen J. Phase I trial of pegylated liposomal doxorubicin combined with ifosfamide for advanced soft tissue sarcoma. Drug Des Devel Ther. 2025;19:6817-6827.doi:10.2147/DDDT.S529231
It’s an epochal moment as history’s latest general-purpose technology, AI, forms itself into an industry. Much depends on these early days, especially the fate of the industry’s leader by a mile, Open AI. In terms of the last general-purpose technology, the internet, will it become a colossus like Google or be forgotten like AltaVista?
No one can know, but here’s how to think about it.
OpenAI’s domination of the industry is striking. As the creator of ChatGPT, it recently attracted 78% of daily unique visitors to core model websites, with six competitors splitting up the rest, according to a recent 40-page report from J.P. Morgan. Even with that vast lead, the report shows, OpenAI is expanding its margin over its much smaller competitors, including even Gemini, which is part of Google and its giant parent, Alphabet (2024 revenue: $350 billion).
The great question now is whether OpenAI can possibly maintain its wide lead (history would say no) or at least continue as the industry leader. The answer depends heavily on OpenAI’s moat, a Warren Buffett term for any factor that protects the company and cannot be easily breached–think of Coca-Cola’s brand or BNSF Railroad’s economies of scale, to mention two of Buffett’s successful investments. On that count the J.P. Morgan analysts are not optimistic.
Specifically, they acknowledge that while OpenAI has led the industry in innovating its models, that strategy is “an increasingly fragile moat.” Example: The company’s most recent model, GPT-5, included multiple advances yet underwhelmed many users. As competitors inevitably catch up, the analysts conclude, “Model commoditization is an increasingly likely outcome.” With innovations suffering short lives, OpenAI must now become “a more product-focused, diversified organization that can operate at scale while retaining its position” at the top of the industry–skills the company has yet to demonstrate.
Bottom line, OpenAI can maintain its leading rank in the industry, but it won’t be easy, and betting on it could be risky.
Yet a different view suggests OpenAI is much closer to creating a sustainable moat. It comes from Robert Siegel, a management lecturer at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business who is also a venture capitalist and former executive at various companies, many in technology. He argues that OpenAI is already well along the road to achieving a valuable attribute, stickiness: The longer customers use something, the less likely they are to switch to a competitor. In OpenAI’s case, “people will only move to Perplexity or Gemini or other solutions if they get a better result,” he says. Yet that becomes unlikely because AI learns; the more you use a particular AI engine, the more it learns about you and what you want. “If you keep putting questions into ChatGPT, which learns your behaviors better, and you like it, there’s no reason to leave as long as it’s competitive.”
Now combine that logic with OpenAI’s behavior. “It seems like their strategy is to be ubiquitous,” Siegel says, putting ChatGPT in front of as many people as possible so the software can start learning about them before any competitor can get there first. Most famously, OpenAI released ChatGPT 3.5 to the public in 2022 for free, attracting a million users in five days and 100 million in two months. In addition, the company raised much investment early in the game, having been founded in 2015. Thus, Siegel says, OpenAI can “continue to run hard and use capital as a moat so they can do all the things they need to do to be everywhere.”
But Siegel, the J.P. Morgan analysts, and everyone else knows plenty can always go wrong. An obvious threat to OpenAI and most of its competitors is an open-source model such as China’s DeepSeek, which appears to perform well at significantly lower costs. The venture capital that has poured into OpenAI could dry up as hundreds of other AI startups compete for financing. J.P. Morgan and Siegel agree that OpenAI’s complex unconventional governance structure must be reformed; though a recently proposed structure has not been officially disclosed, it is reportedly topped by a nonprofit, which might worry profit-seeking investors.
As for moats, OpenAI is obviously in the best position to build or strengthen one. But looking into the era of AI, the whole concept of the corporate moat may become meaningless. How long will it be, if it hasn’t been done already, before a competitor asks its own AI engine, “How do we defeat OpenAI’s moat?”
PA MediaCalMac has paid out more than £460,000 in compensation to passengers because of delays and cancellations to its services since April last year.
The state-owned ferry operator paid £432,735 in compensation to travellers in 2024-25, with a further £33,792 paid out in May and June this year.
It marks a 37% rise on compensation payments in 2023-24, but a slight fall from 2022-23, when the operator paid £454,000 to delayed passengers, according to figures obtained by the Scottish Liberal Democrats.
A Transport Scotland spokesperson said just over 5% of sailings on the network had been cancelled over the last 10 years.
Lib Dem transport spokesman, Jamie Greene, accused the Scottish government of “letting the ferry network deteriorate”.
He pointed to reliability issues within the CalMac fleet and delays in new vessels going into service.
The Glen Sannox ferry, built by Port Glasgow shipyard Ferguson Marine, was delivered years late and over budget.
Its sister ship, the Glen Rosa, will now not be delivered until early next year due to a series of delays.
Meanwhile, the MV Caledonian Isles, which has not sailed since January last year, could be out of action for a further four months in order to undergo further repairs.
The Lib Dems have launched a consultation on the future of the country’s ferry services.
Greene, who represents the West Scotland region, said staff and passengers had been “let down” by the SNP’s management of the network
He added: “The SNP government took control of the company and broke their promise to deliver new ferries on time and on budget, which would have reduced the massive bills we are now seeing for compensation and repairs.
“All of this has created a grim new norm for my constituents along the west coast, from losing business to missing hospital appointments.”
Getty ImagesData obtained by the Lib Dems via freedom of information request showed more than 7,000 compensation claims had been lodged by passengers over a two-year period between April 2023 and April 2025.
The operator has paid out a total of £1.9m in compensation since the 2017-18 financial year.
CalMac said it expected to welcome an additional 13 vessels to its fleet by 2029.
It said, when delays and cancellations did occur, staff worked to find alternative routes or sailings for passengers.
A spokesperson added: “We’re operating more sailings than ever before, with many of our vessels stretched to their limits.
“It is no secret that our fleet is ageing and that this can lead to higher levels of technical problems.
“This is why we are looking forward to welcoming 13 new vessels to the CalMac fleet by 2029, which will lead to less technical problems and cancellations, giving passengers a more reliable service.”
PA MediaA Transport Scotland spokesperson said those new vessels would be able to “operate in more challenging sea and weather conditions”.
They added: “Between January 2015 and June 2025 CalMac have operated over 1.6 million sailings, with just 5.5% of scheduled sailings cancelled. Of those cancelled sailings, 25% were for technical reasons whilst more than double was due to the weather at 60%.
“In the coming year, the Scottish government intend to invest over £530m maintaining and enhancing our networks and strengthening resilience of services on the west coast and northern isles.
“This represents a near 23% increase on 24-25 funding levels.”
Hydration is having a moment.
As wellness becomes a priority for consumers, electrolyte drinks are booming. Demand for sodas is dwindling. Instead, people are flocking to products designed to quench thirst and replenish nutrients.
Gatorade, PepsiCo’s OG sports drink, is now vying for cooler space alongside BodyArmor (from Coca-Cola) and Electrolit (owned by Keurig Dr. Pepper). A host of electrolyte powder packets are also competing for consumer attention.
They all promise an extra dose of electrolytes, key minerals like sodium and magnesium that maintain the body’s fluid balance and help the nerves function. We lose these nutrients when we sweat, and depleting them too much can risk symptoms of electrolyte imbalance ranging from mild headache to serious, even life-threatening seizures.
The problem is, many electrolyte drinks contain a surprising amount of sugar, sometimes as much as soda. Leading brands have as much as 36 grams of added sugar per bottle — the upper daily limit recommended for adults.
That can be helpful if you’re a pro athlete or practicing an endurance sport, since sugar is a quick way to top up your body’s glycogen stores, the key fuel source.
But most of us aren’t working out for hours at a time, and our typical diets are already loaded with added sugar, which can increase our risks of heart disease and cancer.
Here’s an alternative:
For a healthier option that also saves you some cash, you can make your own sports drink at home using sea salt to provide electrolytes.
Sports dietitian Angie Asche of Eleat Nutrition shared a recipe with Business Insider from her cookbook Fuel Your Body.
To make it, combine:
The fruit juice contributes added nutrients like vitamin C and potassium (another electrolyte) along with carbs for energy, at a fraction of the sugar in a typical sports drink. Coconut water provides other electrolytes like magnesium and calcium.
Depending on where you shop and if you buy in bulk, the ingredients cost just over a dollar per serving.
Asche recommends sticking to a hydration ratio of about three servings of water for every one serving of electrolyte drinks, depending on your activity level and how much you sweat.
