An insider's account!

Former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and some Anna Mikhailova have jointly authored a book 'From Banking to the Thorny World of Politics'. With former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz I nurture a few unforgettable memories. Few eye-brows were raised when he was made the Finance Minister of Pakistan after General Musharraf deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and as I have already written, Musharraf was sternly told by the then US President Bill Clinton not to impose any 'martial law'. With this kind of policy from Clinton Musharraf desisted from imposing a martial law; instead he opted to declare himself 'Chief Executive' (yet a new concept in governance) of Pakistan. Being Chief Executive Musharraf's main worry was the economy.
His government selected a banker from Citibank, Shaukat Aziz, for economic management of the country. Shaukat, a Gordonian and a post-graduate from Karachi's Institute of Business Administration (IBA) was not confronted had to confront with financial gimmickry or figure fudging that the than finance minister, Ishaq Dar, had bequeathed to him at the 'Q' Block of Pakistan Secretariate.
Shaukat being the Finance Minister had his nose in every subject ranging from post 9/11 US invasion of Afghanistan, al Qaeda, war on terror and routine confrontations with top ranking officials from the United States. No matter it was Donald Rumsfeld to Dr Condoleezza Rice. Zalme Khalilzad of Afghanistan and Ahmad Chilabi of Iraq were close friends of Shaukat.
I remember when I returned from war-torn Iraq in 2003 after covering the us invasion for over 50 days Shaukat was very keen to meet me. Finally we met at the residence of M.P. Bhindahara where his first question was: "Will Chilabi be the next Prime Minister"?. Shaukat himself was not yet made the Prime Minister in Pakistan. During his rather longer stay at Bhindahara's party he spent a few minutes with Brigadier Mansur Hamid (Tutoo), special assistant to Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, US diplomats and kept complaining to my friend and Senator Waqar Ahmad Khan against those Pakistani journalists who were flagrantly criticizing his fiscal policies.
Shaukat's economic policies must have been grilled by Business Recorder in its oped section so I don't want to make a futile effort to paraphrase my criticism. One thing during my regular interactions with him reflects his total disregard for Pakistan's former Finance Minister and an economist of great repute, Dr Mahbubul Haq.
Shaukat never liked any praise for Dr Haq and his policies. About his politics what can I say? He had only selected his IBA colleagues like one Khurram Khan (son-in-law of Sardar Shaukat Hayat) for his campaigning in Attock District. He knew nothing about Pakistan's traditional politics of "Jor Tor".
I only have one complaint against Shaukat Aziz: he never offered even lip service support to military president General Pervez Musharraf in the latter's bad days in Islamabad and Karachi. One cannot be surprised even if he becomes a financial advisor to Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif. After all these hit-men are pampered for specific duties. In his book "From Banking to the Thorny World of Politics" Shaukat preferred self praise. Shaukat has had a remarkable career, from a 30-year stint as a senior executive in Citibank's global empire to a period in politics, first as finance minister and then as prime minister of his native Pakistan.
So it is no wonder that his friends urged him to write his memoirs, which are published this month. 'From Banking to the 'Thorny World of Politics' is a unique take on two of the institutions that have such a profound impact on our daily lives. The book is full of an insider's anecdotes and a must-read for anyone interested in finance or global politics. Much attention will be focused on one incendiary chapter, 'Bin Laden: Who knew what?' It may have been forgotten that Aziz himself survived an al Qaeda suicide bombing attempt to assassinate him while in office, which drove him to engage in the fight against global terrorism.
People in finance, though, might turn to his fascinating insight into his career as a banker. Some of it appears in a chapter 'The Wall Street: The World's Best School for Politics', a passage that many financiers at Manhattan hoping to be picked as Treasury Secretary should Hillary Clinton take the White House next year, may well be advised to read.
Shaukat's take on the merger between Citigroup and Travelers in the late 1990s, sheds light on the dysfunctional discussions that took place between their respective leaders, John Reed and Sandy Weill, right from the outset. Weill tells Shaukat: "I said to John: 'Listen, we're both in our 60s and had great success, we should be mature enough to get along with each other.' But it turned out we were so, so different." Reed for his part tells Aziz he regrets the merger.
The dysfunction famously extended to the management structure put in place by Reed and Weill. Jamie Dimon, then seen as Weill's right hand man, tells Aziz: "I told John and Sandy from the start, what we were doing is outrageous. We are going to blow up the place. We had tri-heads reporting to co-heads - it was an unmitigated disaster." Dimon, of course, soon left to run BankOne, and is now the undisputed king of US banking as CEO of J.P. Morgan. The book is littered with photos of Aziz with just about every world leader from the past 20 years. In conclusion I would just say about Shaukat Aziz: "Poor banking, poor politics".