Me, myself and I

Dear all,

Dear all,

As you may (or may not) recall, Shaukat Aziz was Prime Minister of Pakistan for three years, and Finance Minister for even longer. Since he was recruited by the military dictator General Pervez Musharraf (after the latter deposed Nawaz Sharif’s government in 1999), and since he was in office during the tumultuous post-9/11 era, you’d think he would have an interesting story to tell or even some intriguing revelations to make -- but alas this is not the case: Shaukat Aziz’s book From Banking to the Thorny World of International Politics is a dull read.

The lasting impression one has of former PM Shaukat Aziz after reading this book is that he‫ is a man who travels a lot and knows a lot of important people -- and who wants us to know that he travels a lot and knows a lot of important people.

The book is replete with name dropping : "Kofi Annan told me…", "Rumsfeld later recalled to me…", "General Jones said to me…", "President Bush suddenly turned to me and said…", "Putin looked at me and said…", "I had a meeting with King Abdullah who said: ‘You will come and have dinner at my palace’", "Domenique de Villepin told me…", "Rafic Hariri, the prime minister of Lebanon called me…" -- and on and on and on.

Indeed from this account Aziz seems to have had more engagement with world leaders and celebrities than with any politicians or bureaucrats -- or anybody at all -- inside Pakistan, and from this book one would think he had been Special Envoy at large or Foreign Minister of the country rather than the Prime Minister.

Shaukat Aziz was recruited by General Musharraf as Minister of Finance and Commerce soon after the Army Chief overthrew Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in October 1999. The retelling of this is interesting as he writes that after the initial call from Musharraf, the "job interview" was conducted at the GHQ, by a panel of generals headed by General Aziz. One can, of course, understand why he would be tempted by the job -- he was a highly successful Pakistani banker who was offered the opportunity to fix his country’s economy -- but what is less clear is why he would agree to be associated with a military ruler as a (figurehead) prime minister for such an extended period of time.

He seems completely unembarrassed by being imported into the role of primus inter pares, through the façade of an election, "To serve as prime minister, I had to become an MP and join the lower house. Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain selected two constituencies for me to run in -- Attock… where his niece… offered to give up her seat for me, and Tharparkar… seat vacated by Arbab Ghulam Rahim, the chief minister of Sindh".

He even says he began "campaigning" even though there was obviously to be no contest, and everybody was just going through the formalities.

When the General was running the show anyway, why did Aziz agree to act as (non) prime minister? This is not clear from the book but the implication is that some sort of patriotism drove the decision.

The sections, where he talks about what expounds on what were the main problems with Pakistan’s economy, and how he tried to fix them, are more interesting and although one might disagree with his methods which mainly involved increasing foreign direct investment, pushing privatisation and trying to curb debt, he says that everything he did was very successful.

What is striking though about this memoir is the strangely detached, ever so slightly patronising tone of the whole narrative, which is in a style that is almost that of a country report for a donor organisation or a global security firm.

Also, the chapters are arranged in non-chronological order so that we never really see the linear development of Shaukat Aziz’s tenure in office.

Nor is there much insight into the political culture or pathology of the country, and one can’t help but wonder if this is because Shaukat Aziz approached the job as a technical financial project rather than a political one.

The book is dedicated to people of Pakistan, yet Aziz now seems to shun any engagement with, or exposure in, that country. The impression of this rather contradictory behaviour is repeatedly reinforced by his unwillingness to be interviewed -- by Pakistanis or for Pakistanis — even in the context of this book.

As it stands, the memoir (co-authored with The Sunday Times journalist Anna Mikhailova) is of some interest but one suspects its PR value is greater than its value, as a document that contributes to the study of the history or politics of the region.

Still, it is fairly interesting to read the former PM’s account of events, and if at any point you tire of the prose then there are lots of lovely colour pictures to look at -- photos with family, friends, and, of course, with lots of important and famous people.

Very impressive…

Best wishes