Shaukat Aziz - Prime Minister

Prime Minister

By 2004, Aziz had become a right hand of general Musharraf, as Musharraf described in his memoirs. The strong oligarch business class of Pakistan, notable Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, had impressed by Shaukat Aziz's performance as finance minister. Following the resignation of Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali on 6 June 2004, Hussain nominated Aziz for the office of Prime minister and was also a top choice for the candidacy of Prime ministerial post by Musharraf.

However, Aziz was not a member of National Assembly, although a Senator. As required by the constitution, the prime minister was required to be a member of National assembly. Aziz was highly regarded as "technocrat" and had gained strust of establishment, international institution and the public support. His nomination came after another technocrat-economist, dr. Manmohan Singh, becomes the Prime minister of India and widely seen as compatible to Indian counterpart.

Having described and labeled as urban gentlemen and smartly dressed, Aziz was tasked with day-to-day running of the federal government and see that policies are more effectively executed while Musharraf handles the military issues. In Pakistan, it was also said that Musharraf eye-blindly trusted Aziz and sometimes, Musharraf's approvals did not needed for the projects that required permission. Aziz quietly and more quickly undermined the elements seeking to undermine Musharraf which may have been a factor that Musharraf had eye-blindly trusted Aziz.

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 District. 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. Pakistan Media labeled him as “Short Cut Aziz” because of lack of political background and hardly affiliation to any political party and still managed to land on the Prime Ministerial Office. Whilst, international media labeled him Urban gentlemen, as he was soft spoken and greeted his guests with great gesture and manners. He retained his position as Minister of Finance. His government introduced and features extremely qualified and new faces in the political area of the country, including Hina Rabbani Khar (economic ministry), Hafeez Shaikh (investment ministry), Khurshid Kasuri (Foreign ministry), and Atta ur Rahman (as science adviser). Many of these technocrats ascended to join the successive governments and embark on successful career in the politics thereafter.

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.