Shaukat Aziz
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| Shaukat Aziz | |
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| Assumed office August 28, 2004 - |
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| Preceded by | Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain |
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| Born | March 6, 1949 Karachi, Pakistan  |
| Political party | Pakistan Muslim League |
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Shaukat Aziz (Urdu: شوکت عزیز), born March 6, 1949 Karachi, Pakistan is the current Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Pakistan. 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.
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[edit] Education
Aziz attended Saint Patrick's High School, Karachi and Abbottabad Public School, Abbottabad. He passed his Intermediate from Government Islamia College, Kasur. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from Gordon College, Rawalpindi, in 1967. He obtained an MBA Degree in 1969 from Pakistani Business School IBA, Institute of Business Administration, Karachi. It was during his studies at the IBA that he secured an internship at Citibank which was to be a start of an illustrious banking career.
[edit] Career
[edit] Citibank executive
In 1969, he joined Citibank, serving in various countries, including Pakistan, Greece, the United States, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Singapore, and others. He served as Citibank's head of Corporate and Investment Banking for various regions, including the Asia Pacific Region, Central & Eastern Europe, and the Middle East And Africa; as Corporate Planning Officer, Citicorp; as a country Manager for Citibank in Malaysia and in Jordan. He has been a board member of Citibank subsidiaries including Saudi American Bank, Citicorp Islamic Bank, and of several non-profit organizations. He was appointed Executive Vice President of Citibank in 1992, reporting directly to the Chairman/CEO. Before taking leave from Citigroup, he was the head of its global Private Banking division, reporting directly to William Campbell, who was then head of the Global Consumer Group.
[edit] Finance Minister
In November, 1999, after the military ousted the elected government Mr. Aziz agreed to become the government's Minister of Finance, with responsibility for Finance, Economic Affairs, Statistics, Planning and Development, and Revenue Divisions. As Minister of finance, Mr. Aziz also heads 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, Mr Aziz was declared 'Finance Minister of the Year' by Euromoney and Banker's Magazine. His term as Finance Minister has been associated with accelarating growth in the Pakistani economy. Pakistan has recently become one of the fastest growing countries in the world.
[edit] Prime Minister
Mr. Aziz was named by the Pakistan Muslim League (Q) as the next Prime Minister after Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali resigned on June 6, 2004.
The post was held by Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain while Mr. Aziz fulfilled the constitutional requirement of securing a seat in the lower house of parliament. Aziz ran from two constituencies, Tharparkar in Sindh, and Attock, a district located west of Islamabad. It is worth mentioning here that a poll showed that less than 5% of the people of either district knew who Shaukat Aziz was[citation needed]. While campaigning, on July 29, 2004, Aziz survived an assassination attempt in the small town of Fateh Jang in the Attock district. A suicide bomber blew himself up attacking a car in which Aziz was travelling. His chauffeur and eight others were killed. Aziz showed great courage in continuing his campaign. 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.
Shaukat 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 retains his position as Minister of Finance, and has presided over an unprecedented boom in the Pakistani economy.
Despite the the President having fluctuating popularity with the electorate, Shaukat Aziz remains very popular within Pakistan and has skillfully managed the economy.
[edit] Criticism
Political opponents have accused Aziz of holding United States citizenship, in addition to his Pakistani citizenship. However, he denies that he ever held US citizenship, and no evidence has been produced to show that he has ever been an American citizen. Another controversy emerged when the Supreme Court of Pakistan overruled the privatization-sale of Pakistan Steel Mills because it did not fully conform to the required procedure. The Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Chaudhry who gave this ruling was later put on compulsory administrative leave while charges of misconduct against Chaudhry were investigated by the Supreme Judicial Council.
Critics have also charged that he was brought into office to complete the agenda of international financial institutions like IMF and World Bank which had been started by the former Prime Minister, Moin Qureshi, who was an employee of the World Bank. However, Pakistan no longer receives assistance from the IMF and has substantially reduced its reliance on foreign borrowing, thus debunking these theories.
[edit] External links
- Profile by BBC dated July 30, 2004
- Profile by PILDAT
- The Turnaround Wizard - Asia Inc. cover story, March 4, 2004
- Asiasource interview of Shaukat Aziz dated April 20, 2004
- http://www.infopak.gov.pk/primeminister.aspx
- A conversation with Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz A South China Morning Post podcast featuring an interview with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, dated March 28, 2007
| Preceded by Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain |
Prime Minister of Pakistan 2004–present |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
| Prime Ministers of Pakistan |
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| LA Khan | Nazimuddin | Bogra | Ali | Suhrawardy | Chundrigar | Noon | A Khan | Amin | Z Bhutto | ul-Haq | Junejo | ul-Haq | B Bhutto | Jatoi | Sharif | Mazari | Sharif | Qureshi | B Bhutto | Khalid | Sharif | Musharraf | Jamali | Hussain | Aziz |
Categories: Articles with unsourced statements since March 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | Citigroup | Prime Ministers of Pakistan | Finance Ministers of Pakistan | Pakistani politicians | Pakistani bankers | Muhajir | University of Karachi alumni | Muslim politicians | 1949 births | Living people
