Shaukat Aziz
Shaukat Aziz is a Pakistani-born British former banker who served as the 15th prime minister of Pakistan from 28 August 2004 to 15 November 2007. When his term as Prime Minister was over, he immediately left Pakistan and settled in the United Kingdom. Previously, he served as the finance minister of Pakistan from 6 November 1999 to 15 November 2007.
Aziz was born in Karachi. He graduated from the Institute of Business Administration and later joined the corporate staff of the CitiBank Pakistan in 1969. He initially served as CitiBank financier, and became executive vice-president of Citibank in 1999.
In 1999, Aziz entered politics on the personal request of Pervez Musharraf and moved to Pakistan from the United States to assume charge of the Finance Ministry as the finance minister. In 2004, Aziz was nominated by the Musharraf as his prime minister after taking resignation from Zafarullah Khan Jamali on 6 June 2004.
Early life and education
Shaukat Aziz was born in Karachi, Pakistan, on 6 March 1949. He studied at Saint Patrick's School, Karachi and Abbottabad Public School, Abbottabad, Pakistan. His father, S.A. Aziz was a radio engineer employed in the state-owned Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation as chief engineer.The PBC moved his family to Abbottabad, North West Frontier Province where he attended the Abbottabad Public School. Later, the family moved back to Karachi. Aziz matriculated and obtained high-school diploma from Saint Patrick's High School and proceeded to Government College now GCU In Lahore where he passed his inter-level and ascended to attend the Gordon College of Rawalpindi, Punjab province in 1965. Aziz obtained a BS degree in Economics in 1967 from Gordan College and moved back to Karachi the same year to enroll in a master's programme. Aziz attended the master's programme of the Institute of Business Administration in Karachi and obtained MBA in business administration in 1969.
Banking career
Initially, Aziz joined the corporate branch of Citibank Pakistan as its credit officer in 1969. During his career, Aziz subsequently served in various countries including Pakistan, Greece, United States, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Philippines, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Singapore.After arriving to assume the charge of corporate assignment in the United States, Aziz settled in New York City and took over the office operations of Citibank at the Empire State Building. Aziz acquired permanent residence status, but did not acquire American citizenship, whilst continuing to upgrade his legal status.
In the U.S., Aziz held numerous positions in Citibank across several divisions including Corporate and Investment Banking, Corporate Planning Officer, Chief Financial Officer of Citicorp and managing director of Citibank Singapore. He has been a board member of Citibank subsidiaries, including Saudi American Bank, Citicorp Islamic Bank, and of several non-profit organizations. Aziz played a pivotal role in expanding Citibank branches and corporate directive operations throughout the country and was instrumental in bringing multinational banking industries into Pakistan in the 1990s.
At Citibank, Aziz served as the corporate director of Asia Pacific global finance operations and had been notable for financing and managing funds on behalf of Citibank and other financial corporations in global stock markets. He was also involved with Citi Private Bank, a subsidiary of Citigroup. Aziz regarded his career in Citigroup as "extremely helpful" in preparing him for the executive public office, in 2006.
Aziz continued to visit Pakistan, working to expand Citibank's financial services and banking, overseeing the wide expansion of Citigroup's branches and its influence in Pakistan. In the 1990s, he worked closely with the governments of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif to help negotiate economic relief packages and aid to Pakistan, while maintaining diverse relations with Pakistan Armed Forces who would also visit the United States as part of Sharif's and Benazir Bhutto's state visits.
By the 1990s, Aziz had established many notable contacts within the United States administration. In a book, Global Financial Warrior, written by John B. Taylor, Aziz had substantial access to the US Treasury, World Bank and many other world financial institutions. Aziz worked closely with the United States in order to finance U.S. war games and operations. Aziz knew the volumes of secretive methods of transferring funds in and out of South Asia, particularly clandestine financing of nuclear weapons programmes of India and Pakistan at its most, Taylor maintained.
Finance minister
Shaukat Aziz had been a president of Citi Private Bank in New York before returning to Pakistan in 1999. Shortly, General Pervez Musharraf arrived for a small personal trip to the United States after staging a coup d'état to deposed the people-elected prime minister Navaz Sharif on 12 October 1999.On 26 November 1999, while addressing a gathering of influential lobbyists of the Pakistani American community, a political lobbying sub-body of the Association of Pakistani Physicians of North America, Musharraf stated that: "Shaukat Aziz has come to Pakistan with forty other financial experts who have offered free service to revive Pakistan's national economy". After a brief session, Musharraf asked Shaukat Aziz to stand up and introduce himself to the audience.
Aziz reportedly returned with Musharraf in November 1999 and took charge of the Finance ministry as its Finance Minister. Aziz took control of the economy with responsibility for Finance, Economic Affairs, Statistics Division, Planning and Development, and Revenue divisions. As Minister of Finance Aziz also headed the Economic Coordination Committee of the Cabinet, the Cabinet Committee on Investment, the executive committee of the National Economic Council, and the Cabinet Committee on Privatization. As Finance minister, all state-owned mega-corporations came under the government-ownership while restructuring each mega-corporation to set off to privatisation. During his first days, Aziz worked to control the economy in a difficult and hostile environment with then-President Muhammad Rafiq Tarar who called him "an alien", and many among those who were close to deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto. Other politicians including Fazal-ur-Rehman and Ameen Faheem became hostile towards Aziz and his policies; and harboured grave doubts about him because Aziz was not like a traditional politician in the country, an accredited politician.
Initially there was a decline in the economy, and Aziz attributes this as "state unpleasant relations with international financial institutions. There was a ~70% decline in the national economy with the loss of $150 million to $600 million, which constituted 0.21% of foreign direct investment global flow. Aziz took initiatives for FDI offering incentives to foreign investors with his macroeconomic policies, taxation framework and a consistent investment policy.
After the 11 September attacks in the United States and Pakistan's role in the war on terror, Aziz travelled to the United States in order to negotiate a relief and U.S. aid to Pakistan. He closely worked with US Secretary of the Treasury on the detail of the devised plan on how to remove the Taliban from Afghanistan, cancellation and debt relief, loans from the World Bank, and direct support from U.S. Aid for national public development. Aziz recommended policies and new plan of economic reforms, including the improved budgetary transparency and spending controls— a plan that was widely accepted by the United States. With the help from United States Department of the Treasury, Aziz thwarted individuals, difficulties and obstacles to achieve success in his economic programmes. In 2002, Aziz worked with U.S. administration to help advise the United States to finance the war in Afghanistan. In the words of John B. Taylor, Aziz suggested that U.S. should call out for a meeting of finance ministers of the G7 member countries, where the illicit funding of money would become a great problem for G7 countries in the future. In April 2002, Aziz chaired a historical meeting on behalf of Pakistan and the United States, helping the G7 members to understand how the illicit money was transferred was shared with the finance ministers of G7 members and Pakistan on other side.
In 2001, Aziz implemented and activated the Privatisation Programme and opened all state-owned enterprises to private sector. This programme undertook the country into rapid economic growth and extreme level of industrialisation the country had for yet seen since 1972. After the 2002 general elections, Aziz intensified his programme and aggressively implemented economic liberalisation policies in the country. Aziz's financial policies came under surrounding controversies, creating new problems for Prime minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali to counter who was forced to resign the office in his favour. His affordable real estate scheme encouraged common men to afford a house and a vehicle on low investment. On the other hand, this scheme brought an increased violation of zoning regulations in construction companies. Although, Zafarullah Khan Jamali controlled the inflation at its low level, his deregulation policies of price control caused the oil and sugar prices to skyrocket. His public and liberalisation of economy policy expanded the political role of Supreme Court of Pakistan in a higher level of the government and to target high-level of government corruption independently without government interferences.
Pakistan's fiscal performance was praised by IMF and the World Bank. The World Bank further reiterated that Pakistan's economic growth bolstered international confidence.
Assassination attempt
While campaigning on 30 July 2004, Aziz survived an assassination attempt in the Attock District of Punjab, Pakistan. The suicide bomb attack was staged in Fateh Jang, a small town to the north of the capital, Islamabad, where Aziz was contesting an election. The attempt was made when Aziz was departing after meeting with constituents. A suicide bomber, who was travelling with the Aziz motorcade, detonated the device next to the car in which Aziz was travelling, killing himself and Aziz's chauffeur, as well as six others.Aziz called the incident "tragic", and said it had claimed the lives of innocent people. He added that it had reinforced his resolve to serve Pakistan and the Islamic world. After safely reaching Islamabad, Aziz instigated a probe, while the foreign office contacted its mission in Egypt to try to determine the veracity of an Al Qaeda claim of responsibility. Ten suspected Al-Qaeda perpetrators were arrested in Egypt and later extradited to Pakistan for the crime.