5 Richest Pakistanis in the World in 2026

Updated October 2026: net worth figures refreshed with the latest published estimates, and the list revised to reflect who actually holds the biggest fortunes today.

The majority of Pakistan’s population belongs to middle- and lower-income groups, yet a handful of Pakistanis, at home and abroad, have built fortunes that put them among the wealthiest people anywhere. Some made their money in textiles, cement and banking, others in British wholesale, American auto parts and, most recently, artificial intelligence.

Ranking them is harder than it sounds. Forbes tracks Pakistan-born billionaires who live abroad closely, but fortunes held mostly inside family groups in Pakistan are rarely valued in public. Where we quote a figure, we name the source and the year, so you know how fresh it is. Here are the five richest Pakistanis in the world in 2026.

1. Shahid Khan: $16.5 billion

Shahid “Shad” Khan is comfortably the richest person of Pakistani origin. Forbes ranked him No. 70 on its 2026 Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans, with a fortune of $16.5 billion, up about $2.2 billion on a year earlier.

Khan arrived in the United States at 16 with $500 and washed dishes while studying engineering at the University of Illinois. He designed a one-piece truck bumper, bought Flex-N-Gate from his former employer in 1980, and grew it into one of North America’s largest auto-parts suppliers, with 76 plants and more than 27,000 employees, according to Forbes.

He is also a major sports owner: the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars since 2012 and England’s Fulham Football Club since 2013. In 2019 he co-founded the wrestling promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW) with his son Tony.

2. Sir Anwar Pervez: Bestway Group

Born in 1935, Sir Anwar Pervez moved to England in 1956 and worked as a bus conductor and driver in Bradford, earning £16 to £18 a week on double shifts. He opened his first shop in London in 1961 and founded Bestway as a trade-only wholesaler in 1976.

Bestway Wholesale is now the UK’s second-largest food wholesaler. In Pakistan the group owns a majority of Bestway Cement and has controlled United Bank Limited (UBL) since 2002. The Sunday Times Rich List last put his personal fortune at £3.1 billion in 2020, and an August 2025 ranking by the Economic Policy and Business Development think tank named him Pakistan’s richest businessman, valuing Bestway’s investments at $3.62 billion. He was knighted in 1999.

3. Mian Muhammad Mansha: Nishat Group

Mian Mansha, born in Chiniot in 1941, built the Nishat Group into one of Pakistan’s biggest conglomerates, spanning textiles, cement, power, insurance and banking. His defining deal was the 1992 acquisition of MCB Bank.

In 2010 he became the first Pakistani on Forbes’ billionaires list, worth around $2.5 billion by 2013. Forbes no longer publishes a figure for him, and the 2025 think-tank ranking valued the group’s investments at about $920 million, so treat any “Mansha net worth” number you see online with caution.

4. Hussain Dawood: Dawood Group and Engro

Hussain Dawood, born in 1943, chairs Engro Holdings and leads the Dawood family’s business group, which includes Dawood Hercules. He led the group’s expansion in the late 1990s, including the acquisition of Engro, and its joint ventures with international partners such as Royal Vopak and FrieslandCampina. The 2025 think-tank ranking valued the Dawood Group at $2.39 billion.

5. Sualeh Asif: about $1.3 billion

The newest name on the list is also the youngest. Karachi-born Sualeh Asif, who represented Pakistan at maths olympiads before studying at MIT, co-founded Anysphere, the company behind the AI coding tool Cursor, and serves as its chief product officer.

After Cursor was valued at $29.3 billion in late 2025, Forbes estimated Asif’s stake at about $1.3 billion, making him a billionaire in his twenties. In April 2026 SpaceX took an option to acquire Cursor for $60 billion, Business Recorder reported.

Who dropped off the list?

Earlier versions of this article included Sadruddin Hashwani, founder of the Hashoo Group behind Pearl-Continental Hotels, and the politician Asif Ali Zardari. Neither has a current net worth estimate from Forbes or a comparable published source, so we have left them out rather than repeat old numbers.

For more Pakistanis whose stories are worth knowing, see our list of 16 national heroes of Pakistan.