Shaukat Aziz

Shaukat Aziz شوکت عزیز
Aziz at the 2007 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting.
24th Prime Minister of Pakistan
In office 20 August 2004 – 15 November 2007
President	Pervez Musharraf
Preceded by	Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain
Succeeded by	Muhammad Mian Soomro
17th Finance Minister of Pakistan
In office 12 October 1999 – 15 November 2007
Preceded by	Ishaq Dar
Succeeded by	Salman Shah
Personal details
Born	(1949-03-06) March 6, 1949 Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan
Political party	Pakistan Muslim League (Q)

Shaukat Aziz (Urdu: شوکت عزیز), (born March 6, 1949 in Karachi, Pakistan) was the Prime Minister of Pakistan from 2004 to 2007. He became Finance Minister in November 1999 and was handpicked by President Musharraf for the position of Prime Minister after the resignation of Zafarullah Khan Jamali on June 6, 2004. He became Prime Minister on August 28, 2004 and served until November 15 2007. He became the first Prime Minister of Pakistan to complete a full term in office.

Education

Aziz attended Saint Patrick's High School, Karachi and Abbottabad Public School, Abbottabad. He passed his Intermediate from Government Islamia College, Kot Radha Kishen. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from Gordon College, Rawalpindi, in 1967. He obtained an MBA Degree in 1969 from Institute of Business Administration (IBA) in Karachi, one of the premier business schools in Pakistan. It was during his studies at the IBA that he secured an internship at Citibank and began his banking career.

Pre-politics

In 1969 he joined Citibank, serving in various countries, including Pakistan, Greece, the United States, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, and Singapore. He served as Citibank's head of Corporate and Investment Banking for the Asia Pacific region and the CEEMEA region (Central & Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa); as Corporate Planning Officer, Citicorp; as Citibank's Chief Country Officer in Malaysia and, later, in Jordan. He has been a board member of Citibank subsidiaries, including Saudi American Bank, Citicorp Islamic Bank, and of several non-profit organizations.

Finance Minister

On 26th November 1999, while addressing a gathering of PakPAC, a political lobbying sub-body of the Association of Pakistani Physicians of North America (APPNA), Musharraf stated that Shaukat Aziz has come to Pakistan with forty other financial experts who have offered free service to revive the Pakistani economy. Then he asked Shaukat Aziz to stand up and introduce himself to the audience.

In November 1999 Aziz became the government's Finance Minister with responsibility for Finance, Economic Affairs, Statistics, 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.

In 2001 Aziz was declared 'Finance Minister of the Year' by Euromoney and Banker's Magazine.

By October 2007, at the end of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz’s tenure, Pakistan raised back its Foreign Reserves to $16.4 billion. Pakistan's trade deficit was at $13 billion, exports were $18 billion, revenue generation was $13 billion and attracted foreign investment was $8.4 billion. [1]

Pakistan's fiscal performance was praised by IMF and World Bank [2]. The World Bank further reiterated that Pakistan's Economic growth bolstered International confidence.

World Bank Praises: World Bank President Mr Wolfensohn said, ""The progress has been terrific. Now Pakistan must stay the course until the benefits of its achievements reach the vulnerable sections of the society including the very poor, women, children and the disabled,".

IMF Praises: IMF's new Middle East director Mr. George Abed, said he was "very pleased with the record of Pakistan in the past three years of continued macroeconomic and financial stabilisation and we have begun to think of Pakistan as a country of promise and a country of potentially high rate of growth."

Asian Development Bank also praised Pakistan's Micro-Finance

Prime Minister

Shaukat Aziz at the White House with US president George W. Bush, 24th January, 2006.

Aziz was named by the Pakistan Muslim League (Q) as the next Prime Minister after Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali resigned on June 6, 2004. He pipped Humayun Akhtar to the post at the 11th hour.

The post was held by Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain while Aziz fulfilled the constitutional requirement of securing a seat in the lower house of parliament. Aziz ran from two constituencies, Tharparkar-I in Sindh, and Attock- III, located west of Islamabad. While campaigning on July 29, 2004 Aziz survived an assassination attempt in the small town of Fateh Jang in Attock District. A suicide bomber blew himself up next to a car in which Aziz was travelling, killing his chauffeur and eight others. However, Aziz continued campaigning and won from both constituencies. Since he could retain only one seat, he immediately vacated his Tharparkar seat, preferring to represent Attock, where he had won by 76,156 votes to 29,497.

Aziz was elected Prime Minister by Parliament on August 27, 2004, by a vote of 191 to 151 in the National Assembly of Pakistan, and was sworn in on August 28, 2004. He retained his position as Minister of Finance, and he presided over an unprecedented boom in the Pakistani economy.

Aziz left office on November 16 2007, at the end of the parliamentary term and became the first Prime Minister of Pakistan who left seat after completion of parliamentary term of five years. His party, Pakistan Muslim League (Q), however, refused to offer him a ticket for contesting the 2008 Elections, a mandatory requirement for the second term in the premier post.

Shaukat Aziz's Credentials

Shaukat Aziz is a banker by training and extensive experience in New York. He is not an academic. His credentials are similar to those of the successful US treasury secretaries such as Bob Rubin and Nick Brady who did well under Clinton and Reagan administrations. He understands the role of banking, finance, investment and consumer credit in economic growth of a nation. He focused on building strong banking, investment and finance sectors in Pakistan to underpin its economy. He strengthened capital availability, an essential and increasingly important economic input, in addition to labor and land improvements. With higher education budget up 15-fold and overall education spending up 36% in two years, he focused on education to improve the availability of skilled labor to fill new jobs. He pushed land development and public and private construction spending to improve infrastructure and facilities to attract greater business investment. Mr. Aziz was largely successful in his efforts. [3]

President Musharraf led a great team of economists and professionals with ex-PM Shaukat Aziz, to mark their achievements [4]. Their achievements and Era [5] caused Pakistan to emerge as a geo-strategic important country with a 100% better economy and ushered in Multi-National Corporations. [ http://www.presidentmusharraf.wordpress.com/2008/06/24/musharraf-era-ushers-in-multi-national-corporations/ ]

Pakistan’s economy grew by 100% — to become $ 160 billion

Revenue grew by 100% — to become $ 11.4 billion

Per Capita Income grew by 100% — to become $ 925

Foreign Reserves grew by 500% — to become $ 17 billion

Exports grew by 100% — to become $ 18.5 billion

Textile exports grew by 100% — to become $ 11.2 billion

Karachi Stock Exchange grew by 500% — to become $ 75 billion

Foreign Direct Investment grew by 500% — to become $ 8 billion

Annual Debt servicing decreased by 35% — to become 26%

Poverty decreased by 10% — to become 24%

literacy rate grew by 10% — to become 54%

Public development Funds grew by 100% — to become Rs 520 billion

Economic Comparison 1999 and 2008

In early 2007, according to an independent survey by IRI, another surprising finding was that 22 per cent of the respondents thought Shaukat Aziz would be the best prime minister. On that count, Benazir scored a respectable 19 per cent and Nawaz Sharif only 11 per cent. A significant 16 per cent did not know who could be the best prime minister. [6]

References

Foreign Reserves Phenomenon: Shaukat Aziz versus PPP

External links

• Profile by BBC dated July 30, 2004
• The Turnaround Wizard - Asia Inc. cover story, March 4, 2004
• Asiasource interview of Shaukat Aziz dated April 20, 2004
• Shaukat Aziz's Economic Legacy
• A conversation with Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz A South China Morning Post podcast featuring an interview with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, dated 28 March, 2007
• NNDB Profile of Shaukat Aziz
• When Aziz was stared down by Rice