New Delhi: Within hours of a consortium led by Arif Habib Limited (AHL), a Karachi-based securities brokerage firm, winning the bid for 75 percent stake in Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) last week, the Fauji Fertiliser Company Limited (FFC) joined them.
FFC, a military-owned and public-listed company, was one of the four bidders for 75 percent stake in PIA, but it withdrew from the bidding process ahead of the submission and opening of bids, Pakistan daily Dawn reported.
It had withdrawn at the last minute because if two participating consortia join hands after the bidding is done, it would be considered collusive practice.
Meanwhile, amid burgeoning debt, Islamabad is allowing the United Arab Emirates to acquire a stake worth approximately $1 billion in the Fauji Foundation—the multi-billion-dollar conglomerate formed by its army. The potential rollover of $2 billion worth of loans by Abu Dhabi is also expected.
So what is Fauji Foundation? It is nothing but a giant money-making machine of the powerful Pakistani Army which has a finger in every profitable business in Pakistan—breakfast cereals to cement, fertiliser to power generation and property development to banking and even stock investment.
It is part of Pakistan’s broader military–corporate complex, where the armed forces control significant economic assets, through which Pakistan’s military extends its influence beyond defence and into the economy.
It works alongside Pakistan Navy’s Baharia Foundation and Air Force’s Shaheen Foundation, which have their own businesses cutting across sectors like insurance to real estate development and shipping.
Another major player is the Army Welfare Trust (AWT), which controls over two dozen commercial enterprises. Then there is the Defence Housing Authority (DHA), which has made the Pakistan military the country’s largest land developer, with projects spread across the country.
Established in 1952
The Fauji Foundation was established as a charitable trust in 1952, under the Charitable Endowments Act of 1889 for the welfare of armed forces personnel.
It began with an initial paid-up capital of USD 3.6 million which it received from the British colonial administration for supporting the widows and families of World War II veterans.
Cut to 2025, and the Fauji Foundation is the biggest business group in Pakistan with at least 25 listed and unlisted companies under it.
While the foundation officially claims to channel approximately 80 percent of the profits from commercial ventures into social protection programmes, experts have put the value at less than 5 percent.
According to the Economic Policy & Business Development Think Tank’s (EPBD) Wealth Perception Index 2025, Fauji Foundation tops the list of 20 public-listed conglomerates with a net worth of USD 5.90 billion. This means, it is the biggest commercial entity of Pakistan.
The foundation’s financial trajectory reveals impressive growth with total assets climbing from Rs 152 million in 1970 to Rs 2,060 million by 1982, and further to Rs 495 billion (approximately US$4 billion) in 2018.
The recent jump to $5.9 billion in 2025 reflects a 78 percent asset increase between 2011 and 2015, followed by sustained expansion, according to Pakistani media reports.
What is interesting is that while several of its subsidiaries are listed on the Karachi stock market, there are several which are not.
Key subsidiaries that add to the revenue of Fauji Foundation include the Fauji Fertiliser Company, Askari Bank and Mari Petroleum, alongside unlisted ventures like Fauji Meat Limited and Foundation Gas.
In energy, Foundation Wind Energy and FFC Energy Limited have expanded renewable capacities while Fauji Oil Terminal handles millions of metric tons annually.
The Fauji Foundation also has stakes in strategic joint ventures, such as Pakistan Maroc Phosphore in Morocco and collaborations with international firms like Cargill for marine terminals, the Times of Islamabad reported.
The foundation’s LPG marketing arm, Foundation Gas, commanded a 16 percent national market share in 2004, distributing over 55,000 metric tons annually.
The foundation is also involved in the Pakistan-China project—CPEC—where military-linked firms have bagged major contracts, including the Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim (FFBL), which has partnered with Chinese firms in coal-based and LNG-linked power projects. Several other Faujji-linked firms are involved in the supply, transport and construction businesses connected to the CPEC.
Ayesha Siddiqa, a Pakistani military expert and author of Military Inc: Inside Pakistan’s Military Economy, has written that Pakistani military’s “welfare foundations” run thousands of businesses worth tens of billions of dollars, ranging from street-corner petrol pumps to sprawling industrial plants.
In 2008, she had told Al Jazeera that the military’s private wealth could be as high as $20bn, a “rough figure”, she said, split between $10bn in land and $10 in private military assets.
She also estimated that the military controls one-third of all heavy manufacturing in the country and up to 7 percent of Pakistani private assets.
Lt Gen A. B. Shivane (Retd), in an article for Indian Army’s think tank CLAWS said that Fauji Foundation is also linked to money laundering, narco-terrorism financing and operates with an opaque web; the military controls about USD 50 billion of Pakistan’s USD 400 billion economy.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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Good. Pakistan needs a structurally and financial strong military to counter the global pariah India is fast becoming. Nothing to see here..