Another scion of Mardan’s affluent Hoti family arrested

Ameer Ghazan Khan Hoti, brother of former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti and son of an ex-federal minister Azam Khan Hoti, is yet another scion of Mardan’s highly rich and powerful Hoti family to have been arrested in a culpable crime.
Ghazan Hoti was arrested on Tuesday in Peshawar on court orders after cancellation of his bail application in the mutli-billion rupee shady weapons deal.
The Hotis of Mardan are a family of decades-old traditional barons, though KP former chief minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti had declared before the Election Commission in March 2012 that he only had Rs300000 cash-in-hand, while his three bank accounts had Rs3000, Rs2000 and Rs2000 in balance respectively.
Ameer Haider Hoti had further stated that furniture and articles under his personal use were valued at Rs300000 while neither he, nor his wife owned any car for their personal use.
However, the former KP chief minister was “truthful” enough to admit that his wife owned 148 kanals of land in Mardan (valued at Rs10.9 million), a 24 per cent share in a business in Dubai (valued at Rs3.3 million), shares in two CNG businesses in Pakistan (valued at Rs6.4 and Rs5 million each) and 20 tolas of jewellery.
But despite all the inherited riches, former NWFP governor Nawab Abdul Ghafoor Khan Hoti’s young son, Aurangzeb Hoti, was handcuffed at an American airport for carrying narcotics a couple of decades ago.
Later, he was sentenced to a few years of imprisonment in the United States.
Nawab Abdul Ghafoor Hoti (1923-1998) was a serving governor at that time, had been a federal minister in his political career and was chief of the warrior Yousafzai tribe of “Hoti,” when his son had embarrassed him by being caught red-handed for smuggling drugs in the United States.
Abdul Ghafoor Hoti was the son of Nawab Akbar Khan Hoti of Mardan and father of former Inspector General of KP Nawabzada Akbar Khan Hoti (appointed in October 2011, relinquished charge on April 16, 2013) —-who bears the same name as his illustrious grandfather.
Ameer Haider Hoti and Ameer Ghazan Hoti are the great-grandsons of former NWFP Chief Minister Dr. Khan Sahib (1882-1958).
Khan Abdul Jabbar Khan alias Dr. Khan Sahib was the elder brother of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan alias Baccha Khan.
Ghazan’s father Azam Khan Hoti had remained a federal minister twice in a previous Nawaz Sharif government, while his maternal uncle Asfandyar Wali Khan is the Chief of the ANP.
Yes it is the same Azam Hoti, whose ex-wife had attempted suicide outside KP Inspector General Police’s offices sometime ago.
The Hoti family of Mardan had not only played a prominent role during the independence movement, but has also held quite a sway in Pakistani political circles since 1947.
Just to cite a few examples in this context, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah had paid a visit to Mardan on November 24, 1945 on invitation of Nawabzada Abdul Ghafoor Hoti’s father Nawab Sir Akbar Khan Hoti and had addressed a huge gathering at the Hoti House.
Nawab Akbar Khan Hoti had not only attended the historical session of Muslim League at Lahore on March 23, 1940 but had also attended the “Simla Conference” of 1945.
Nawab Akbar Khan Hoti’s son and Governor Abdul Ghafoor Hoti’s elder brother Colonel (Retd) Mohammad Amir Khan, a graduate of United Kingdom’s prestigious Sandherst Academy, had participated in World War II, leaving his mark on the battlefields of Libya and Iraq.
He is being remembered in Mardan’s history for displaying unmatched gallantry and valour when he had escorted a train carrying thousands of refugees and military equipment from India in 1947.
The colonel was rewarded and appointed as a Military Attache in Indonesia after the partition.
It was on his invitation in 1950’s that the then Chinese Prime Minister, Zhou Enlai (pronounced as Chouin Lai) had paid a visit to Mardan during his historic tour to Pakistan.
Colonel (R) Mohammad Amir Khan later became Minister for Industries, Village Aid and Supplies in late 1957 when Iskandar Mirza was ruling the country.
During Ayub Khan’s era, he remained an MNA and then hosted premier Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto at Hoti House in Mardan a few years later.
During the Pakistan People’s Party era, Colonel Amir Khan Hoti was appointed as Ambassador to Spain and had served there for three years from 1981 to 1984.
Archives reveal he had also feted the then World Bank President, Robert Strange McNamara, at his farmhouse.
Robert McNamara (1916-2009), also the eighth US Secretary of Defense under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, had served as the fifth World Bank Group President between 1968 and 1981.
It was in this particular meeting that Robert McNamara had extended a loan facility for the establishment of a paper mill at Charsadda.
This unit was later known as the Pakistan Paper Corporation.
Another eminent Hoti, Khwaja Mohammad Khan Hoti, had remained a Provincial Minister of Education.
His paternal grandfather was Nawab Muhammad Akbar Khan Hoti and his maternal grandfather was Brigadier Sir Nawab Muhammad Shah Jehan Khan, who was also the ruler of Dir State. He is the son-in-law of late Abdul Ghafoor Khan Hoti.