House of Habib

The House of Habib is a prominent Khoja business family in Pakistan. The Habib group's most famous and successful subsidiary is its Banking and Finance division.

The history of the House of Habib goes back to middle of the previous-to-last century when Esmail Ali of Jamnagar district of Gujarat, in western India, set up a small utensil factory in Bombay. His son Habib Esmail, born in 1878, founded the House of Habib. Habib was very young when his father died, forcing him to join the business of his uncle Cassum Mohammad. Cassum Mohammad was the owner of Khoja Mithabai Nathoo, a merchant, and a manufacturer of copper and brass utensils. It was because of his association with Mithabai Nathoo that Habib Ismael came to be known as Seth Habib Mitha.

The House of Habib holds many distinctions in Pakistan's history. Habib Bank was shifted to Pakistan on the personal bidding of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. He came to the aid of the nascent state "even before the Govt of Pakistan was ready to issue appropriate government paper" with a Rs 80 million loan when the Reserve Bank of India failed to deliver Pakistan share of Rs 900 million held by it. It is said that Mohammad Ali Habib gave a blank cheque on Lloyd Bank to the Quaid-e-Azam who wrote Rs 80 million in it.

The Habib family set up offices in Vienna and Geneva as early as 1912 and incorporated Habib and Sons in 1921, which dealt in brass, metal scraps and gold with "Lion of Ali" & Zulfiqar embossed on it. The Habib Bank still uses this as its insignia. Habibs today are headed by Rafiq Habib and the Dawood Habib family in two distinct groups.

The Habib group today consists of:

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