Sartaj Aziz – The CAP Podcast #96

Sartaj Aziz was born in Mardan in 1929. Currently the National Security and Foreign Affairs Adviser to the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mr. Aziz spoke to CAP about his childhood. He talked about the lifestyle he had as the child of a civil servant, living in NWFP. In particular, he spoke of his experience living in Abbottabad and Haripur among other places.

Sartaj Aziz (Urdu: سرتاج عزيز‎; born 7 February 1929) TPk, is a Pakistani economist, statesman, strategist, and the current Foreign affairs adviser on the foreign policy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.^[1] His role as an adviser is equivalent to the Foreign minister in the Sharif government; in addition, he also served as the National Security Advisor from 2013–15 until relinquishing the post to Naseer Khan Janjua. A veteran Pakistan Movement activist and a former professor of macroeconomics at the Beaconhouse National University, Aziz statesmanship saw his role as the Foreign Minister in a previous term of the Sharif government from 1990–1993 and as well as Finance Minister in 1997 until being reassigned as Foreign Minister in 1999.

Aziz is noted for adhering to the principles of free-market economics, economic liberalization, and privatization in 1990s. In addition, he served as an adviser to the Foreign Ministry while he helped implementing the economic policy through Economic Coordination Committee (ECC). He is renowned for his peace activism and was the only senior minister opposing the decision of conducting nuclear tests in response to India, but later retraced his position in 2002.

Education and Pakistan movement

Sartaj Aziz was born in 1929 in the Pashtun Kakakhel family in the Nowshera, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In the 1940s, Aziz was a young activist in the Muslim League-led Pakistan movement. Aziz was educated at Islamia College of Lahore and then obtained a Bachelor's degree in Economics from the Punjab University in 1949.

Aziz proceeded to join the civil service in 1950 and later traveled to the United States and earned a Master's degree in Development economics from Harvard University in 1963. Returning to work in the government, he attained the position of joint secretary in the Planning Commission of Pakistan in 1967. Aziz later worked in theUnited Nations Food and Agriculture Organization from 1971 to 1975, and the International Fund for Agricultural Development from 1978 to 1984.

Statesmanship

Indo-Pakistan conflicts

Sartaj Aziz joined the economic bureau of the Planning Commission in 1964, sitting in a bench where he attended the meeting with the Chairman of the Planning Commission, Economic minister Muhammad Shoaib, Foreign minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and the President Ayub Khan, to discuss the economical assessment of the Operation Gibraltar against India. According to Aziz, Bhutto had gone on a populist Anti-Indian and Anti-American binge during the meeting. Bhutto succeeded the President on spellbinding the ruling general into thinking he was becoming a world statesman fawned upon by the enemies of the United States. When authorising the Gibraltar,Deputy Chairman had famously told the President in the meeting, "Sir, I hope you realize that our foreign policyand our economic requirements are not fully consistent, in fact they are rapidly falling out of line". Aziz vetoed the Gibraltar against India, fearing the economical turmoil that would jolted the country's economy, but was rebuffed by his senior bureaucrats. In that meeting Bhutto convinced the President and the Economic minister that India would not attack Pakistan due to Kashmir as a disputed territory, and in Bhutto's mark: "Pakistan’s incursion into Indian-occupied Kashmir, at [A]khnoor, would not provide [India] with the justification for attacking Pakistan across the international boundary "because Kashmir was a disputed territory". This theory proved wrong when India launched a full-scale war against West-Pakistan in 1965.

The war with India cost Pakistan an economical price, when Pakistan lost the half a billion dollars it had coming from the Consortium for Pakistan through the United States. Ayub Khan could not suffer the aftermath and fall from the presidency after surrendering the presidential power of Army Commander General Yahya Khan in 1969. Escalating the further crises, the country was floundered, losing East-Pakistan after India again attackPakistan six years later, with the economy in great jeopardy without United States' assistance.

Post nationalizations

Aziz did not join the government of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto but was hostile towards the issue of nationalisation. Aziz criticised Bhutto for intensifying the government control of the privatised mega-corporations, citing that "Bhutto’snationalization failed to make up for the "mismatch" between economic reality and policy formulation".^[4] In protest, Aziz departed from Pakistan in 1971, joining the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization which he remained until 1975, and later joined the staff of the International Fund for Agricultural Development in 1978.

In 1984, Aziz joined the Military Government of President and Chief of Army Staff General Zia-ul-Haq in 1984 asMinister of state for Food, Agriculture and Cooperatives. He was elected to the Senate of Pakistan from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 1985 elections and again in 1993 parliamentary elections.^[2] From 1988 to 1994, he served as senator from the capital territory of Islamabad in 1988. Having joined the Pakistan Muslim League (N), Aziz was appointed the minister of finance, planning and economic affairs in the first Nawaz Sharif ministry from 1990 to 1993. In 1993, he was appointed the secretary general of the party. Aziz was the proponent of privatisation of the major government-owned state corporations of Pakistan, and as Treasure minister, Aziz played a pivotal role in privatising the economy of Pakistan.

Finance minister (1997–98)

Main articles: Pokhran-II, Chagai-I and Chagai-II

After the PML (N)'s landslide victory in the 1997 parliamentary election, Aziz was re-appointed Treasure Minister, to lead the Ministry of Treasury, by Prime ministerNawaz Sharif where he continued his privatisation policies. Aziz adopted the proposed economic theory of matching economic requirements with national strategy. Aziz was tasked with intensifying country's economical system more dependent on investment, privatisation and the economical integrals penetrating through the matters of national security.

“	"Deepening economic imbalance will bring about a decisive shift in the balance of power between India and Pakistan and the idea was to recreate balance through deterrence"	”
— Sartaj Aziz opposing the nuclear tests, 1998,

Aziz was extremely upset and frustrated after learning the Indian' nuclear testing that took place in Pokhran Test Range of Indian Army in May 1998, through the media. The India's tests naming Pokhran-II — s codename of series of nuclear tests in May 1998— Sartaj Aziz prepared his economical proposals, requests and recommendation before meeting with the Prime minister Nawaz Sharif. The meeting was chaired by the Prime minister with state-holders of all institutions (both scientific, military, civilians, and bureaucratic) attended the meeting calling for the suitable reply to India. At this meeting, Sartaj Aziz was the only senior minister in Pakistan's government who counseled against Pakistan carrying out its own nuclear tests – codename Chagai-I and Chagai-II, on grounds of the possible devastating impact of any subsequent international sanctions on Pakistan owing to the prevailing economic recession and low foreign exchange reserves. However, due to economical sanctions, Aziz briefly abandons his theory of matching economic requirements with national strategy. In 2001, Aziz later publicly supported the government's stance on conducting the tests, calling it a "right decision" at that time.

Foreign minister (1998–99)

Ash Carter meets with Sartaj Aziz, Sept. 16, 2013

Following a cabinet reshuffle in 1998, Aziz was appointed foreign minister but his term was cut short. During the 1999 Kargil War with India, Aziz travelled to the People's Republic of China to solicit support for Pakistan. He also travelled to India to hold talks with his counterpart, the Minister of External Affairs Jaswant Singh, but the talks were regarded as a failure and unsuccessful in stemming the conflict. Aziz claimed India had "overreacted", while India demanded that Pakistan stop the incursion into Indian-administered Kashmir. Aziz also represented Pakistan at the Organisation of the Islamic Conferencein Burkina Faso, held during the Kargil conflict. Aziz later claimed in the media that Pakistan had achieved its aims in the Kargil conflict by "forcing the Kashmir dispute to the top of the global agenda." He is currently the Foreign Minister of Pakistan.

His term ended abruptly after the Nawaz Sharif government was overthrown in a military coup by Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee and Chief of Army Staff General Pervez Musharraf. Aziz ironically associated with the Pakistan's foreign policy after his removal and tacitly backed Pakistan's decision to conduct nuclear tests. In a thesis written by Aziz in his book, "Between Dreams and Realities: Some Milestones in Pakistan’s History:

It was a big upset about what happened to the economy after the [atomic] tests, but was consoled that in 2002, India mobilized half a million troops on the border after an attack on its parliament in 2001, but was finally forced to withdraw the "due to the danger of a nuclear retaliation by Pakistan....

— Sartaj Aziz, defending Pakistan's decision to tests its nuclear capability in 1998,

National Security and Foreign Adviser (2013–present)

John Kerry and Aziz address reporters during a news conference inIslamabad.

In 2013, the PML(N) secured the landslide victory during the nationwide general elections, with overall ~50.1% of public mandate in the National Assembly. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif approved the appointment of Aziz to be elevated asNational Security Adviser (NSA) on 15 May 2013. Aziz drafted and had it approved the new national security strategy, and announced a new policy framework.

Appointed as National Security Adviser (NSA), Aziz held a meeting with Minister of External Affairs Salman Khurshid to discuss the situation in LoC. Aziz's three-day official visit also included meeting with Hurriyat Conference and Kashmir leaders. In early months of 2014, the PPP politicians began a protest at the Parliament over the foreign policy shift in regards to civil war in Syria. The protest took place after Saudi Crown prince Salman bin Abdulaziz visited Pakistan, andnews channels widely broadcast the reports Saudi Arabia was in talks with Pakistan to provide anti-aircraft and anti-tank rockets to the rebel. Delivering a speech at the National Assembly session, Aziz strongly rejected the speculations surfaced in the news channels regarding change in Pakistan's policy on Syria and linking it with the visit of Saudi crown prince. Aziz quoted: This impression is baseless and misleading that there has been a policy shift regarding Syria. Pakistan fully honours national and international laws in its agreements and sale of arms."

On nuclear weapons policy, Aziz defended Pakistan's rationale of nuclear deterrence. Speaking at the general public in the United States Aziz explained the Pakistan's nuclear arsenal policy: our (atomic) program is entirely deterrent in nature, in the sense that if India—we have to have enough parity to defend ourselves. And if we hadn't any nuclear weapons in 2002, after the parliament attack, we would have had a major war with India, and several other opportunities, so there's no question that nuclear capacity has given us some insurance, because our conventional capacity, the gap is increasing.

In a wake of deadly Peshawar massacre in December 2014, Aziz visited Kabul and held a meeting with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani where he emphasized on tighter "border control". In further talks with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, Aziz widely quoted that "the military in Pakistan and security forces in Afghanistanhave agreed to carry out coordinated operations against terrorists along the Pak-Afghan border.

In October 2015, Aziz relinquish his post as National Security Advisor to Naseer Khan Janjua (a retired army general) which was viewed as to provide coordination between civilian Foreign ministry and the military on foreign policy issues, which were being ignored due to his hectic engagement as per demand of the dual offices, quoted by the officials in Islamabad. On 9 December 2015, Aziz hosted the Heart of Asia conference in Islamabad and met with Indian Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj; Aziz also accompanied Sushma Swaraj to meet with Prime Minister Sharif. About the foreign intervention in Syrian civil war, Aziz explained Pakistan's policy on Syria in Senate in December 2015 that Pakistan is "against any attempt to topple the government of Syrian President Bashar al Assad."

Peace activism

Aziz associated himself with the academic institutions and universities of Pakistan, lecturing on the issues of economics, public development, and global finance. During his term as Treasure minister, Aziz made an effort with neighbouring India to promote peace and harmony between two country, and during his lecture on economics reforms and development in South Asia at the Delhi University, Aziz stressed the importance of normalisation of relations between both countries. His leading peace activism efforts led India to declare Pakistan as Most favoured nation (MFN) in 1996, and won praise by Inder Kuman Gujral, Indian counterpart of his at that time.

Academia

Since 1998, Aziz remained associated with Quaid-e-Azam University where he occasionally lectured on Economics and philosophy where he also lectured on Pakistan's Foreign policy. Since 1990, Aziz authored four international books on economics and philosophy. In which, the most publicly known is the "Between dreams and realities: some milestones in Pakistan's history", which was published in 2009 by the University press.

Sartaj Aziz was forced out by his peers during the wave of 1999 military coup d'état which started and ended the massive arrests of his colleagues and government ministers of Nawaz Sharif. Since then, Aziz remained quiet and dedicated his life to work on economical issues. In 2001, Aziz joined the Department of Social Sciences of the Beaconhouse National University and served there as a professor of Economics. In 2009, Aziz was appointed and is currently tenuring as the Vice-Chancellor of the Beaconhouse National University in Lahore.

Awards

For his participation in the Pakistan movement, Aziz is the holder of the Sanad, Mujahid-e-Pakistan. In 1959, he was awarded the Tamgha-e-Pakistan and the Sitara-e-Khidmat in 1967 for his work in central planning and economic development.

• Mujahid-e-Pakistan Medal (1947)


• Tamgha-e-Pakistan (Medal of Pakistan) (1959)


• Sitara-e-Khidmat (Star of Service) 1967

Books

• Aziz, PhD (Economics), Sartaz (1999). Agricultural policies for the 1990s. Paris, France: Head of Publication Service, OCD. pp. 1–134. ISBN 92-64-13350-X.


• Aziz, Sartaj (1990). Privatisation in Pakistan,. Paris, France: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. ISBN 92-64-15310-1.


• Aziz, Sartaj (2000). Dil, Anwar Salik, ed. Hunger, poverty and development: life and work of Sartaj Aziz. Michigan, United States: Intellectual Forum Publications, at the University of Michigan. p. 592. ISBN 978-969-0-01622-5.


• Aziz, PhD (Economics), Sartaj (2009) [2009], Between dreams and realities: some milestones in Pakistan's history (Illustrated ed.), Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2009, p. 408, ISBN 978-0-19-547718-4