1. Shaukat Aziz was born on 6 March 1949 and is a Pakistani-born British former banker who served as the 15th prime minister of Pakistan from 28 August 2004 to 15 November 2007.
84 Facts About Shaukat Aziz
1. 2.
Shaukat Aziz graduated from the Institute of Business Administration and later joined the corporate staff of the CitiBank Pakistan in 1969.
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Shaukat Aziz initially served as CitiBank financier, and became executive vice-president of Citibank in 1999.
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In 1999, Aziz entered politics on the personal request of Pervez Musharraf and moved to Pakistan from the United States to assume charge of the Finance Ministry as the finance minister.
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In 2004, Shaukat Aziz was nominated by the Musharraf as his prime minister after taking resignation from Zafarullah Khan Jamali on 6 June 2004.
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Shaukat Aziz was born in Karachi, Pakistan, on 6 March 1949.
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Shaukat Aziz studied at Saint Patrick's School, Karachi and Abbottabad Public School, Abbottabad, Pakistan.
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Shaukat Aziz was a radio engineer employed in the state-owned Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation as chief engineer.
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Shaukat Aziz matriculated and obtained high-school diploma from Saint Patrick's High School and proceeded to Government College now GCU In Lahore where he passed his inter-level and ascended to attend the Gordon College of Rawalpindi, Punjab province in 1965.
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Shaukat Aziz obtained a BS degree in Economics in 1967 from Gordan College and moved back to Karachi the same year to enroll in a master's programme.
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Shaukat Aziz attended the master's programme of the Institute of Business Administration in Karachi and obtained MBA in business administration in 1969.
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Shaukat Aziz acquired permanent residence status, but did not acquire American citizenship, whilst continuing to upgrade his legal status.
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Shaukat Aziz has been a board member of Citibank subsidiaries, including Saudi American Bank, Citicorp Islamic Bank, and of several non-profit organizations.
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Shaukat Aziz played a pivotal role in expanding Citibank branches and corporate directive operations throughout the country and was instrumental in bringing multinational banking industries into Pakistan in the 1990s.
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At Citibank, Shaukat Aziz served as the corporate director of Asia Pacific global finance operations and had been notable for financing and managing funds on behalf of Citibank and other financial corporations in global stock markets.
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Shaukat Aziz was involved with Citi Private Bank, a subsidiary of Citigroup.
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Shaukat Aziz regarded his career in Citigroup as "extremely helpful" in preparing him for the executive public office, in 2006.
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Shaukat Aziz continued to visit Pakistan, working to expand Citibank's financial services and banking, overseeing the wide expansion of Citigroup's branches and its influence in Pakistan.
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Shaukat Aziz worked closely with the United States in order to finance US war games and operations.
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Shaukat Aziz knew the volumes of secretive methods of transferring funds in and out of South Asia, particularly clandestine financing of nuclear weapons programmes of India and Pakistan at its most, Taylor maintained.
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Shaukat Aziz had been a president of Citi Private Bank in New York before returning to Pakistan in 1999.
22.
On 26 November 1999, while addressing a gathering of influential lobbyists of the Pakistani American community, a political lobbying sub-body of the Association of Pakistani Physicians of North America, Musharraf stated that: "Shaukat Aziz has come to Pakistan with forty other financial experts who have offered free service to revive Pakistan's national economy".
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Shaukat Aziz reportedly returned with Musharraf in November 1999 and took charge of the Finance ministry as its Finance Minister.
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Shaukat Aziz took control of the economy with responsibility for Finance, Economic Affairs, Statistics Division, Planning and Development, and Revenue divisions.
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Shaukat Aziz took initiatives for FDI offering incentives to foreign investors with his macroeconomic policies, taxation framework and a consistent investment policy.
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Shaukat Aziz closely worked with US Secretary of the Treasury on the detail of the devised plan on how to remove the Taliban from Afghanistan, cancellation and debt relief, loans from the World Bank, and direct support from US Aid for national public development.
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In 2002, Shaukat Aziz worked with US administration to help advise the United States to finance the war in Afghanistan.
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In 2001, Shaukat Aziz implemented and activated the Privatisation Programme and opened all state-owned enterprises to private sector.
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The suicide bomb attack was staged in Fateh Jang, a small town to the north of the capital, Islamabad, where Shaukat Aziz was contesting an election.
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The attempt was made when Shaukat Aziz was departing after meeting with constituents.
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Shaukat Aziz called the incident "tragic", and said it had claimed the lives of innocent people.
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Shaukat Aziz added that it had reinforced his resolve to serve Pakistan and the Islamic world.
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However, Shaukat Aziz was not a member of the National Assembly, although he was a Senator.
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Shaukat Aziz was highly regarded as a "technocrat" and had gained the trust of the establishment, international institutions and public support.
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Shaukat Aziz's nomination came after another technocrat-economist, Dr Manmohan Singh, became the prime minister of India and Aziz was widely seen as compatible with his Indian counterpart.
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The post was held by Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain while Shaukat Aziz fulfilled the constitutional requirement of securing a seat in the lower house of parliament.
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Shaukat Aziz ran from two constituencies, Tharparkar-I in Sindh, and Attock District.
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Shaukat Aziz successfully oversaw the rapid development of the local government system in Pakistan as part of his "Strengthening Decentralisation" program.
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Shaukat Aziz strengthened the policy formats and area of responsibility of National Reconstruction Bureau after appointing Daniyal Shaukat Aziz in 2005.
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Shaukat Aziz thrashed the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy led by conservative leader Javed Hashmi who was placed in military prison on treason charges, on a support provided by Shaukat Aziz.
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Subsequently, Shaukat Aziz supervised and presided the first free and fair local body elections with PML and its allied parties sweeping the election arena.
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In Sindh and Balochistan Province, Shaukat Aziz presided the peaceful election held events and personally monitored the success of the local government body programme.
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Shaukat Aziz was inflicted with the involvement in the killing of Akbar Khan Bugti, although he has denied any involvement in any manner.
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In Islamabad alone, Shaukat Aziz's government was forced to take military action, codename Silence after chairing a meeting with the President.
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In 2009, Shaukat Aziz maintained that his government had tried at every level of extreme to resolve the Lal Masjid issue through talks to save lives.
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Shaukat Aziz remains supportive towards Khan and efficiently took matters of Abdul Qadeer Khan in 2006 from President Musharraf.
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On 10 September 2006, Shaukat Aziz sent flowers and personally visited Khan when he was hospitalised and on 12 October 2007, Musharraf made it clear to United States and rest of the world that Khan "won't be handed over" at given any circumstances.
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Shaukat Aziz's government pushed for the renewable energy, and put efforts to establish the solar energy and wind power sector in the country.
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Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz approved the constructional, and approved the developmental work of CHASNUPP-II reactor at the Chashma Nuclear Power Plant in Chashma city, Punjab Province of Pakistan.
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Shaukat Aziz termed this project as "milestone" in the history of nuclear technology in Pakistan.
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In 2007, Shaukat Aziz approved the constructional development of KANUPP-II and the nuclear reprocessing site, the Nuclear Power Fuel Complex in Islamabad.
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Shaukat Aziz oversaw to increase the capacity building of the Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority, a governmental nuclear safety authority, to meet the safety requirement of nuclear power plants.
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Shaukat Aziz presided initial construction of major hydroelectric power plants project in Pakistan, such as approving the Diamer-Bhasha Dam.
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In 2004, Shaukat Aziz directed the Ministry of Water and Power and Planning Commission to prepare an integrated energy plan for the country.
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Shaukat Aziz oversaw the successful development of the JF-17 Thunder fighter programme in record time, built with the close cooperation with China.
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Shaukat Aziz successfully saw the technology transfer and contract development of first combatant frigate, the F-22P Zulfiquar.
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Shaukat Aziz presided over the security, expansion, and modernization of the country's nuclear deterrence programme as part of his defence policy.
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Shaukat Aziz oversaw the successful development of the Shaheen-II missile program and witnessed its first flight at an undisclosed location in April 2006.
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On 8 August 2005, Shaukat Aziz issued directives to tightened the security and control and command of the National Command Authority and ordered strict monitoring of atomic assets and facilities at all levels of command.
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In 2004, Shaukat Aziz stated and clarified Pakistan's nuclear policy to the world and India in an interview given to the Times of India:.
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From 2005 and onwards, Shaukat Aziz's government took major steps against atomic proliferation while making several decisions to increase the capacity of nuclear deterrence and sufficient use of nuclear energy for the civil sector.
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On foreign fronts, Shaukat Aziz closely collaborated with Musharraf while working to develop the geostrategy in the region.
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Shaukat Aziz took initiatives to strengthen the relations with the United States, European Union, Russia, India, China, and Saudi Arabia.
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Shaukat Aziz urged Ahmadinejad to immediately place a moratorium on uranium enrichment, while on the other hand Erdogan described the EU-3 proposal, with Russian enhancements, as a very attractive offer for Iran.
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Shaukat Aziz paid a farewell visit to South Korea to strengthen and enhance relations between the two countries.
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Shaukat Aziz cautiously supported South Korea's stance while refraining to criticise North Korea.
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Shaukat Aziz strongly allied with the United States in the fight against terrorism, and in a meeting with an American journalist, Shaukat Aziz maintained that: "Pakistan is ideally positioned to "work with cooperation rather than confrontation as a force for peace, stability, and prosperity.
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At foreign fronts, Shaukat Aziz maintained a "Telephone Policy" on diplomatic engagement with Israel, whilst keeping Saudi Arabia and Turkey in tacit contact.
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Shaukat Aziz built closer economic ties with India while alleviating the territorial conflicts.
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Shaukat Aziz pushed his foreign policy to Russia, calling Russia a "global super power".
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In 2006, Shaukat Aziz invited state-run and private-media of Russia where he repeatedly stressed for the need to enhance cooperation between Pakistan and Russia in the fields of education, science and technology, energy, defence and trade and investment.
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Shaukat Aziz successfully privatised all state-owned corporations and state enterprises before completing his term.
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However, Shaukat Aziz's strategy failed deal with underlying problems deeply in country's economy.
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Shaukat Aziz is roundly criticized for his policy of downsizing in the public sector and disintegrating the effects of nationalisation policies of Benazir Bhutto as early as the 1990s but Aziz defended as he points out that his policies made these institutions viable while they were on the verge of collapse.
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Shaukat Aziz presided the strong banking sector, unprecedented investment and growth finance sectors in Pakistan to underpin its economy.
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Shaukat Aziz strengthened capital availability, an essential and increasingly important economic input, in addition to labour and land improvements.
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Shaukat Aziz aggressively pushed land development and public and private construction spending to improve infrastructure and facilities to attract greater business investment.
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Shaukat Aziz co-chaired the Secretary-General's High Level Panel on the United Nations System-wide Coherence in the areas of development, humanitarian assistance and the environment.
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In 2008, Shaukat Aziz participated in the Global Creative Leadership Summit, organised by the Louise Blouin Foundation.
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Shaukat Aziz remained active in political arena of the country and has vigorously defended his financial policies.
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Shaukat Aziz criticised the care-taker government of Muhammad Mian Soomro for the economic collapse, and predicted that, "the next elections will sweep, paving the way for a two-party system to emerge with the Pakistan Muslim League in the government and the Peoples Party in the opposition".
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Shaukat Aziz maintained that he was informed of "unfortunate event" through the televised media.
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On 5 November 2017, Shaukat Aziz appeared on the Paradise Papers leaks.
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Shaukat Aziz dismissed both the murder charge and the allegations of financial impropriety.