Presents a company importuning Chevrolet 800 cc cars but the company is modify its designs and manufacture 1000 cc Chevrolet cars.
Giving background of the company, the president said that late Lieutenant General M Habibullah Khan Khattak retired as the Chief of Staff Pakistan Army in 1959, since his age was only 46 years he embarked upon a second career in business and in 1963 purchased General Motors Plant in Karachi and named it Ghandhara Industries Limited .
General Motors had appointed Ghandhara Industries as their distributors in Pakistan for GM Worldwide products particularly for Bedford trucks, buses and light commercial vehicles (LCV) at the time deletion was not mandatory, yet Ghandhara took up the challenge of localisation and voluntarily went ahead to develop local competes of Bedford trucks and busses. This was the first venture in the automobile sector and with the grade of God and hard work of all concerned Ghandhara venture proved to be a huge success and financially a sound company.
Unfortunately in 1972 under Zulfiker Ali Bhutto policy of nationalisation almost all the units in the country were nationalised including Ghandhara Industries. During the nationalised period of 1972 to 1991 most of the automobile industry of Pakistan went into a decline The Ghandhara Industry also suffered setbacks and sustain huge financial losses and became bankrupt.
However in the early 90s the then government of Pakistan changed its policy and restarted encouraging private sector to invest in the country and establish units. The then government also adopted a policy of de-nationalising of nationalised units.
The company was bought back by General Habibullah and started its financial re-structuring. The company is now on sound financial footing. In 1981 the company obtain the license from Nissan Motors Co Japan for marketing CUB Nissan vehicles and established a new company with the name of Ghandhara Nissan Limited (GNL) and shortly obtain top position in passenger car sale market.
Ghandhara Nissan Limited later on entered into a joint venture agreement with Nissan Diesel Co Japan for assembly of Nissan Diesel trucks and busses in the country and established another company with the name of Gandhara Nissan Diesel Limited (GNDL) in 1985.Gandhara Limited is the currently the market leader of heavy trucks in Pakistan and increasing its share of the bus market.
In 1992 Ghandhara Nissan Limited entered into a technical assistance agreement with Nissan Motors Co Japan for the assembly of Nissan passenger cars and light commercial vehicles and establishes a state of art ED paint shop at the plant.
With the demise of General Habibullah Khan in 1994 who hold the highest position in the company the company suffered hue losses. Later in 1999 Lieutenant General (Retd) Ali Kuli Khan Khattak took over the company as chief executive of GNL.
In order to streamline operations, add economy and taxability, GNDL was merged into GNL in September 2004. GNL today is financially sound company GNL is currently the market leader of heavy trucks in Pakistan and increasing its share of bus market.
The car section of GNL is presently assembling land rover vehicles for the Pakistan army and general public under a contract assembly arrangement with Sigma Motors (Pvt) Limited
Replaying questions, Ali Kuli Khan Khattak said that after 9/11 and introduction of car financing schemes automobile sector is booming and car sale increased by about 50 percent.
He said that with the reduction of import duty on cars in budget 2005-06 prices is of big cars and vehicles will go down whereas it make to effect on small cars as the difference is very little.
He pointed out that at one time duty on imported cars were as high as 350 percent. The duties were reduced to get rid of on many. This is the only country in the world where on many exist on car sales.
He said that the government introduced NTN numbers to be quoting on sale of each car but this scheme was failed.
Interview by: N.H. Zuberi
NEW PRICE LIST FOR NISSAN VEHICLES:
============================================================================
S.NO MODEL PRE SELLING NEW SELLING DIFFERENCE
PRICE PRICE
1. NISSAN SUNNY 1.3L EXS M/T 1,125,000 1,125,000 -
2. NISSAN SUNNY 1.3L EXS A/T 1,185,000 1,185,000 -
3. NISSAN SUNNY 1.6L EXS M/T 1,365,000 1,315,000 50,000
4. NISSAN SUNNY 1.6L EXS A/T 1,450,000 1,390,000 60,000
5. NISSAN SUNNY 1.6L SS A/T 1,533,000 1,480,000 53,000
6. NISSAN CEFIRO 2.3L UPPER A/T 3,310,000 2,795,000 515,000
7. NISSAN X-TRIAL 2.2L D LE M/T 2,997,000 2,695,000 302,000
8. NISSAN X-TRIAL 2.2L D SLX M/T 3,570,000 3,170,000 400,000
9. NISSAN X-TRIAL 2.5L LE M/T 2,780,000 2,480,000 300,000
10. NISSAN X-TRIAL 2.5L LE A/T 2,815,000 2,512,000 303,000
11. NISSAN X-TRIAL 2.5L SLX A/T 3,194,000 2,840,000 354,000
12. NISSAN PATROL 4.2L D SGL M/T 5,572,000 5,015,000 557,000
============================================================================