Shaukat Aziz - Finance Minister

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 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 lobbyist of Pakistan American community, 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 Pakistan's national economy..". After a brief session, Musharraf asked Shaukat Aziz to stand up and introduce himself to the audience.

Aziz reportedly return with Musharraf in November 1999 and took the in charge of 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 megacorporations came under the government-ownership while restructuring each megacorporations to set off to privatization. During his first days, Aziz worked to control the economy in a difficult and a hostile environment with then-President Rafiq Tarrar who called him "an Alien", and many among those who were close to deposed Prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto. Other politicians including Ata-ul-Haq Kasmi, 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 (Pakistan) unpleasant relations with international financial institutions. There was a ~70% declining in the national economy with the loss of $150 million (1999) to $600 million (2000), which constituted 0.21% of FDI global flow. Aziz took initiatives for Foreign direct investment (FDI) offering incentives to foreign investors with his macroeconomic policies, taxation framework and a consistent investment policy.

After the September 11 attacks in the United States and Pakistan's role in the War on Terror, Aziz traveled to 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 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 advised the United States to finance the war in Afghanistan. In the words of John B. Taylor, Aziz suggested that U.S. should called out for a meeting of finance minister of the G7 member countries, where the illicit funding of money would become a great problem for G7 countries later in future. On April 2002, Aziz chaired a historical meeting on behalf of Pakistan and United States, helped the G7 members to understand the useful information how the illicit money is transferred was shared with the finance ministers of G7 members and Pakistan on other side.

In 2001, Aziz implemented and activated the Privatization Programme (first founded by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in 1991) and opened all state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to private sector. This programme undertook the country into rapid economic growth and extreme level of industrialization the country had for yet seen since 1972. After the 2002 general elections, Aziz intensified his programme and aggressively implemented economic liberalization 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, but on other hand, this scheme brought an increase violation of zoning regulations in construction companies.Zafarullah Khan Jamali Although he controlled the inflation at its low level, but his deregulation policies of price control was pressuring the oil and sugar price to skyrocket. His public and liberalization 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.

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.

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

IMF Praises: IMF's new South-Asia 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.

Media Recognition: In 2001, Mr. Aziz was also named "Finance Minister of the Year" by the prestigious Euromoney and Bankers Magazines.