Zia Chishti: The Man Who Refused to Lose TRG

May 18, 2026 (MLN): Three years ago, Ziaullah Khan Chishti was a man on the outside looking in. The founder of TRG Pakistan, a technology empire he had built from the ground up, one that once held stakes worth over two billion dollars, had been pushed out of the company he created.

A sexual harassment allegation had cost him his position. Court battles in New York and Bermuda had bled him financially and reputationally. The men he had once hired, trusted, and called colleagues were now running the firm. And by his own account, running it into the ground.

Most people, facing that combination of forces, would have walked away.

Zia Chishti did not.

Instead, he did something that few observers gave him a realistic chance of pulling off. He took on TRG's board in a Pakistani court, argued that 13,000 public shareholders had been defrauded, and fought his way, through the Sindh High Court and all the way to the Supreme Court of Pakistan, to a verdict that sent shockwaves through the country's corporate world.

On May 11, 2026, Pakistan's Supreme Court dismissed all appeals against the Sindh High Court ruling that had cancelled Greentree Holdings Limited's 30% shareholding in TRG Pakistan.

The block of shares that had been used to keep Zia Chishti at bay was gone. The board elections that had been denied to shareholders for years were now imminent. And Zia Chishti, with his family holding 30% voting rights in TRG Pakistan was suddenly the most powerful single voice in a company he had not run in half a decade.

Days after the ruling, Mettis Global asked Zia Chishti a wide range of questions. In response, he spoke about the alleged fraud, the billions he claims were lost under the incumbent board’s watch, the individuals he holds responsible by name, his own admitted errors in judgment, and what victory truly means after spending three years and an unimaginable amount of personal capital fighting this battle.

He was unapologetic. He was combative. And he was, by any measure, confident that the hardest part was behind him.

The following interview has been published in full, unedited.

MG: It is rumored that you received a lot of support from JS Group to win your case. How true is that?

ZC: JS Group and I are currently engaged in extensive litigation against each other.  JS Group has its own commercial interests, as do I. There are areas where these interests align, such as a common desire to remove the existing directors of TRG Pakistan that have committed fraud, and have run the company unlawfully and oppressively.

MG: You do not believe that your presence on the Board of TRG Pakistan shall endanger relationships with key clients of TRG-related entities. However, what if this starts to prove otherwise? Would that not destroy value for you and everyone else involved?

ZC: The existing board of TRG Pakistan has destroyed the majority of the business.  TRG Pakistan’s most valuable asset was its shareholding in Afiniti.  Afiniti is now bankrupt and what used to be a stake worth a billion dollars is now worthless.  TRG Pakistan has reduced its shareholding in its next most valuable asset, Ibex, from over 60% to now 13% in order to fund its fraud and illegalities, and to pay themselves and their lawyers tens of millions of dollars.  The share price of TRG Pakistan jumped 20% immediately upon the Supreme Court ruling.  Clearly TRG Pakistan shareholders believe that my involvement with the Company is a positive and, far from destroying value, constitutes a better alternative than the incumbent management continuing with its fraud. 

MG: A US District Court in New York ruled just two days ago, on 12 May 2026, that your claims of shareholder oppression against TRG and its affiliates are "forever released", because you signed a Release Agreement on 10 January 2022, at the time you received over $60 million from TRG International. How do you reconcile that with the narrative that you are fighting for the rights of 13,000 public shareholders? Were you not, in fact, paid out and released before this fight even began?

ZC: The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York has made no ruling that in any way affects the judgment of the Pakistan Supreme Court or the Sindh High Court.  The incumbent leadership of TRG has already tried multiple variations of this argument in both the Sindh High Court and the Pakistan Supreme Court and it has been consistently rejected.  This is disinformation being spread by the incumbent board, which is now desperate to cling to their positions despite having suffered a complete legal defeat. 

MG: A permanent rift between you and the existing TRG Management including some founding members is bound to work against the best interest of the TRG Pakistan shareholders. How do you plan to resolve that situation? Do you plan to continue the fight with TRG International management for another 5 years?

ZC: The entire TRG Pakistan and TRG International management will be removed by the incoming TRG Pakistan board in short order.  These individuals are delusional if they are of the view that they will manage to obstruct justice in Bermuda for more than a few weeks.   TRG Pakistan owns 69% of TRG International, which is a controlling interest.  To counter this, the TRG Pakistan and TRG International management has fraudulently given over a 24% voting position directly to Mr. Khaishgi, leaving TRG Pakistan with what they claim is a 45% voting position.  However, any such action required the approval of the shareholders of TRG Pakistan under Section 199(4) of the Pakistan Companies Act, which approval was never sought or received.  Accordingly, the proper legal position is that TRG Pakistan holds a controlling interest in TRG International, which we are confident the Bermuda courts will honor.

MG: TRG International in its press release hinted at a "constructive and orderly resolution" regarding complete removal of your practical influence from TRG-related entities. Is that a wish or an offer for settlement? Have any settlement discussions taken place, and is there a number or a structural arrangement that would make you walk away?

ZC: All settlement discussions are confidential and I will not comment on this matter.  The only constructive and orderly resolution is that the adjudicated fraudsters resign and make restitution for the billions of dollars in damages they have caused to TRG Pakistan’s shareholders.  It is inconceivable that a board that has been directly found liable for fraud against its shareholders by the Supreme Court of Pakistan could continue in any capacity.

MG: You have called this a "$150 million fraud against 13,000 public shareholders." Fraud is a serious legal term. Has any criminal complaint been filed, or is this characterisation purely civil in nature?

ZC: The Sindh High Court found that TRG Pakistan has been “carrying on unlawful or fraudulent activities; and is being run and managed by persons who commit fraud, misfeasance or malfeasance in relation to the company.”  This finding has now been confirmed by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.  I will not comment on any criminal proceedings.

MG: You say the business went from $2 billion to $100 million under current management. But you held a 16% stake throughout this period and remained a shareholder. At what point did you raise a formal alarm, and why did it take a tender offer in 2024 to trigger your legal challenge?

ZC: My legal challenge began in early 2023 with an arbitration filing in New York.  Even before that in 2022 a director of the company brought an extensive complaint to the SECP.  When it became clear that the complaint would go nowhere, I acted to try to remedy what was even then an obvious fraud.  Through a series of ex parte stay orders the existing TRG Pakistan management held back governance changes.  These have now all been adjudicated in my favor.

MG: If the Board destroyed $1.9 billion in value while paying themselves and their lawyers "tens of millions," where exactly did that value go? Can you point to specific decisions, transactions, or individuals responsible?

ZC: Under the incumbent, fraudulent board’s direction and control, Afiniti went bankrupt after being worth over $2 billion under my leadership.  The key individuals involved in this horrific conduct were Mohammed Khaishgi, Hasnain Aslam, John Leone, and Patrick McGinnis, with the latter two acting as agents for the New York based fund manager PineBridge investments.  These core wrongdoers were supported by a cast of “yes men” directors and managers who did nothing to check their judicially-established fraud and unlawfulness, despite such misconduct being repeatedly brought to their attention.  Several of these individuals actively assisted in the fraud and illegality.

MG: You say your family controls 30% of TRGP and you expect board representation within 5–7 weeks. But the Sindh High Court judgment left the fate of Greentree's block of shares to the shareholders. What happens if that block is not cancelled. Does it dilute your influence significantly?

ZC: At this time, with what was Greentree’s 30% interest transferred to TRG Pakistan’s treasury, my family holds 30% voting rights in TRG Pakistan.  Nothing will happen to this treasury share position until after the new board takes control.  So, going into the board election, I am hopeful to be able to have substantial representation on the TRG Pakistan board.  I am also looking forward to the 70% balance of TRG Pakistan’s shareholders exercising their rights to elect directors, which rights have been fraudulently and illegally withheld by the incumbent TRG Board which holds only 0.1% of the shares of the Company.

MG: "Turning the company around" is a phrase, not a plan. What is your concrete roadmap. Are we talking asset sales, new management, fresh capital injection, or something else entirely?

ZC: New management and fresh capital are both on the table.  TRG Pakistan will also get back to its original vision of making real investments in cutting edge technology in AI, healthcare, and communications, which can create massive economic returns for Pakistan.  The most important immediate step is to stop the bleeding under the incumbent leadership, which just announced a 9 billion rupee loss in the last quarter, has cumulatively lost over 30 billion rupees since it took control, and is wasting tens of millions of dollars of shareholder money on futile legal expenses and personal salaries and bonuses.

MG: You describe the current management as having destroyed TRG. But these are people you once hired, trusted, and in some cases called founding members. What does that say about your own judgment when you were in charge?

ZC: It says that my judgment as to these individuals was poor.  I failed to see that they would stoop to the levels of fraud and mismanagement they have done in order to line their own pockets and build their own egos.

MG: You have been fighting this battle for roughly three years through courts in Pakistan and the US simultaneously. Litigation of this scale consumes enormous personal resources, financially and reputationally. Honestly, what does winning actually look like for you at the end of this?

ZC: I am committed to restoring shareholder governance at TRG Pakistan and TRG International, holding the fraudsters to account, and rebuilding the business to even greater heights than before.  If I do my job right, TRG will once again be Pakistan’s leading technology holding company and investment firm.  I would like TRG Pakistan to create over $20 billion in value in the next few years, and to once again set the standard within Pakistan’s technology sector, once again create opportunities for thousands of our top graduates to build promising careers in Pakistan, and once again show that Pakistan is a country that can innovate, not just emulate.

Bottomline

Whatever one makes of Zia Chishti and opinions in Pakistan's business community are sharply divided, it is difficult to argue that the man lacks conviction.

He has spent three years waging a multi-front legal war across three jurisdictions, named colleagues he once called friends as fraudsters in open court, and now stands on the cusp of reclaiming a company that, by his own admission, was once worth twenty times what it is today.

The road ahead is anything but smooth. A US District Court has raised questions about the scope of a release agreement he signed in 2022. TRG International, which employs 40,000 people globally, has vowed to fight on in Bermuda.

Settlement talks, he hints, are ongoing though he will not say more. And the sheer scale of the rebuilding task at TRG Pakistan, after years of losses and a 9 billion rupee quarterly deficit, is formidable by any measure.

But Zia Chishti is not talking like a man who expects to lose.

His vision, $20 billion in value, Pakistan's leading technology holding company, thousands of careers rebuilt, is either the roadmap of a serious operator who has earned the right to dream big again, or the ambition of someone who has confused winning a legal battle with winning back a business. The answer to that question will play out not in courtrooms but in boardrooms, balance sheets, and ultimately in the lives of the shareholders and employees whose futures are now tied to what he does next.

For Pakistan's technology sector, and for the foreign investors watching closely from the sidelines, the stakes could not be higher.

A $90 million foreign stake has already been cancelled. A landmark court ruling has upended assumptions about corporate governance in the country. And a man who was written off is now calling the shots.

The Zia Chishti chapter at TRG is not a comeback story yet. But it has, undeniably, begun.

Disclaimer

This interview was conducted exclusively following the Supreme Court of Pakistan's short order of May 11, 2026. Responses are published verbatim and unedited.

Copyright Mettis Link News