KARACHI // The death toll from a powerful earthquake that struck a remote part of southwestern Pakistan rose to 210 officials said, as rescue teams rushed to the area.
The 7.7-magnitude quake hit the Awaran district of Baluchistan province on Tuesday afternoon, destroying scores of mud-built houses.
Abdul Latif Kakar, the head of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority, gave AFP the new toll and said there were more than 300 people injured.
A top local administration official in Awaran, Abdul Rasheed Baluch, confirmed the new toll and said many more deaths were feared as response teams worked through the day.
“We have been busy in rescue efforts for the whole night and fear we will recover more dead bodies from under the rubble during the daylight,” he said.
“Around 90 percent of houses in the district have been destroyed. Almost all the mud houses have collapsed.”
Some of the dead have already been laid to rest in their villages, he added.
Tremors were felt as far away as the UAE and New Delhi, where buildings shook. The quake was also felt in Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, along the Arabian Sea.
Officials are also investigating whether the earthquake created a new island off the coast of Gwadar.
Baluchistan province is the country’s largest but also the least populated.
People in Karachi’s office buildings rushed into the streets following the tremor, and Pakistani television showed images of lights swaying as the ground moved.
“I was working on my computer in the office. Suddenly I felt tremors. My table and computer started shaking. I thought I am feeling dizziness but soon realised they were tremors,” said one Karachi resident, Mohammad Taimur.
TV footage showed residents in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan, coming out of their homes and offices in a panic. One man told Pakistan’s Dunya television channel that he was sitting in his office when the building started shaking.
Other residents said people started reciting verses the Quran, when the quake began.
Light tremors were felt across the UAE. The National Centre for Meteorology and Seismology said the quakes were between 3.0 and 4.0 on the Richter Scale.
Pakistan’s Baluchistan province and neighbouring Iran are prone to earthquakes.
A magnitude 7.8, which was centred just across the border in Iran, killed at least 35 people in Pakistan last April.
In January 2011, a 7.2 magnitude quake damaged 200 mud-brick homes in a remote area of Baluchistan about 320 kilometres south-west of Quetta, not far from the Afghan border but caused no casualties.
* Agence France-Presse with additional reporting by Awad Mustafa and the Asscoiated Press
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Company Profile
Company name: Cargoz
Date started: January 2022
Founders: Premlal Pullisserry and Lijo Antony
Based: Dubai
Number of staff: 30
Investment stage: Seed
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