Sartaj Aziz | |
|---|---|
سرتاج عزیز | |
.jpg) Aziz in 2014 | |
| Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs | |
| In office 7 June 2013 – 28 July 2017 | |
| President | Mamnoon Hussain |
| Prime Minister | Nawaz Sharif |
| Preceded by | |
| Succeeded by | |
| In office 7 August 1998 – 12 October 1999 | |
| President | Rafiq Tarar |
| Prime Minister | Nawaz Sharif |
| Preceded by | Gohar Ayub-Khan |
| Succeeded by | Abdul Sattar |
| 6thNational Security Advisor | |
| In office 7 June 2013 – 23 October 2015 | |
| President | Mamnoon Hussain |
| Prime Minister | Nawaz Sharif |
| Preceded by | Mahmud Ali Durrani |
| Succeeded by | Naseer Khan Janjua |
| Minister of Finance | |
| In office 25 February 1997 – 6 August 1998 | |
| President | |
| Prime Minister | Nawaz Sharif |
| Preceded by | Naveed Qamar |
| Succeeded by | Ishaq Dar |
| In office 26 May 1993 – 18 July 1993 | |
| Prime Minister | Nawaz Sharif |
| Preceded by | Farooq Leghari |
| Succeeded by | Syed Babar Ali |
| In office 7 August 1990 – 18 April 1993 | |
| Prime Minister |
|
| Preceded by | Benazir Bhutto |
| Succeeded by | Farooq Leghari |
| Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security | |
| In office 1984–1988 | |
| Prime Minister | Muhammad Khan Junejo |
| Member of Senate fromIslamabad Capital Territory | |
| In office March 1988 – 12 October 1999 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1929-02-07)7 February 1929 Mardan,British India (present dayKhyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan) |
| Died | 2 January 2024(2024-01-02) (aged 94) Islamabad, Pakistan |
| Nationality | Pakistani |
| Political party | Pakistan Muslim League (N) |
| Relations | Ashar Aziz (nephew) |
| Education | |
| Occupation |
|
| Cabinet |
|
| Awards | Tamgha-e-Pakistan (1959) |
Sartaj Aziz (Urdu: سرتاج عزيز; 7 February 1929 – 2 January 2024) was aPakistani economist and strategist,[1] who had previously served as the deputy chairman of thePlanning Commission of Pakistan, member of thefederal cabinet as thede factoMinister for Foreign Affairs, aFederal Senator as well as theNational Security Advisor.[2][3][4]
Born innorth-westernBritish India, as a student Aziz was an activist in thePakistan Movement. Aziz went on to study economics atPunjab University and later studied public administration atHarvard Kennedy School. He served as a civil servant from 1952 to 1971 within Pakistan's federal government, also serving as the joint secretary in the planning commission between 1967 and 1971. In 1971, Aziz joined theFood and Agriculture Organization and served as its Director of Commodities, later moving to theInternational Fund for Agricultural Development where he served as the Assistant President, Policy and Planning between December 1977 and April 1984.[5][6][7][8][9]
Aziz returned to Pakistan in 1984 and served as ajunior minister for Agriculture and Food Security until 1988 under the conservativeJunejo administration.[5] He was elected to the Senate of Pakistan in 1988 and re-elected in 1993 from the center-rightPML-N, and served in bothSharif administrations first as theMinister of Finance from August 1990 to June 1993 andMinister of Foreign Affairs from August 1998 until1999 coup d'état. He is noted as the only cabinet member who opposed the decision of conductingnuclear tests inresponse to India, citing 'economic reasons'. During his tenure as the Finance Minister he was noted a strong proponent ofeconomic liberalization.[10][11]
In 2004, he moved to academia, and became the vice-chancellor ofBeaconhouse National University; he also taught at economics at the university.[12] Aziz authoredBetween Dreams and Realities, which was published in 2009.[13] He remained with the university until 2013, when he joined the Nawaz Sharif's third administration as an advisor in-charge of country's foreign policy; he also served as the National Security Advisor between 2013 and 2015.[14][15]
Sartaj Aziz was born in 1929 in aSayyidKakakhel family inNowshera, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.[16] In the 1940s, Aziz was a young activist in theMuslim League-ledPakistan movement.[16] Aziz was educated atIslamia College of Lahore and then obtained abachelor's degree in economics from thePunjab University in 1949.[17] Aziz joined thecivil service in 1950 and later traveled to the United States and earned a master's degree indevelopment economics fromHarvard University in 1963.[17]
Returning to work in the government, he attained the position of joint secretary in thePlanning Commission of Pakistan in 1967. Aziz later worked in theUnited Nations Food and Agriculture Organization from 1971 to 1975, and theInternational Fund for Agricultural Development from 1978 to 1984.[17]
Ashar Aziz, a Pakistani-American electrical engineer, business executive, and former billionaire is Sartaj Aziz's maternal nephew.[18]
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 ministerMuhammad Shoaib, Foreign ministerZulfikar Ali Bhutto and the PresidentAyub Khan, to discuss the economic assessment of theOperation Gibraltar against India.[19] According to Aziz, Bhutto had gone on a populistAnti-Indian andAnti-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 theenemies of the United States.[19] When authorising theGibraltar,Deputy Chairman had famously told the President in the meeting, "Sir, I hope you realize that ourforeign policy and oureconomic requirements are not fully consistent, in fact they are rapidly falling out of line".[19] Aziz vetoed theGibraltar against India, fearing the economic turmoil that would jolt the country's economy, but was rebuffed by his senior bureaucrats.[19] In that meeting Bhutto convinced the President and the Economic minister that India would not attack Pakistan due toKashmir as adisputed territory, and in Bhutto's mark: "Pakistan's incursion intoIndian-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".[19] This theory proved wrong when India launched a full-scale war againstWest-Pakistan in 1965.[19]
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.[19] Ayub Khan could not suffer the aftermath and fall from the presidency after surrendering the presidential power ofArmy Commander GeneralYahya Khan in 1969.[19] Escalating the further crises, the country was floundered,losingEast-Pakistan after Pakistanagain attack India six years later, with the economy in great jeopardy without United States' assistance.[19] Aziz was Chief, International Economic Section, in the Planning Division of the Government of Pakistan, during the 1971 conflicts with India.[20]
Aziz did not join thegovernment of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto but was hostile towards the issue ofnationalisation.[19] 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".[19]
In 1984, Aziz joined theMilitary Government ofPresident andChief of Army StaffGeneral Zia-ul-Haq asMinister of State for Food, Agriculture and Cooperatives.[21] He was elected to theSenate of Pakistan from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in1985 elections and again in1993 parliamentary elections.[16] From 1988 to 1994, he served as senator from the capital territory ofIslamabad in 1988.[16] 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.[21] In 1993, he was appointed the secretary general of the party.[16]
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After the PML (N)'s landslide victory in the1997 parliamentary election, Aziz was re-appointedTreasure Minister, to lead theMinistry of Treasury, by Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif where he continued his privatisation policies.[19] Aziz adopted the proposed economic theory of matching economic requirements with national strategy.[19] Aziz was tasked with intensifying country's economic system more dependent on investment,privatisation and the economical integrals penetrating through the matters of national security.[19]
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,[19]
Aziz was extremely upset and frustrated after learning the Indian nuclear testing that took place inPokhran Test Range ofIndian Army in May 1998, through themedia.[19] The India's tests namingPokhran-II — s codename of series of nuclear tests in May 1998— Sartaj Aziz prepared his economic 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.[19] At this meeting, Sartaj Aziz was the only senior minister in Pakistan's government who counseled against Pakistan carrying out its own nuclear tests – codenameChagai-I andChagai-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.[22][23] However, due toeconomical sanctions, Aziz briefly abandons his theory of matching economic requirements with national strategy.[19] In 2001, Aziz later publicly supported the government's stance on conducting the tests, calling it a "right decision" at that time.[19]
Following a cabinet reshuffle in 1998, Aziz was appointed foreign minister but his term was cut short. During the 1999Kargil War with India, Aziz travelled to the People's Republic of China to solicit support for Pakistan.[24] He also travelled to India to hold talks with his counterpart, theMinister of External Affairs Jaswant Singh, but the talks were regarded as a failure and unsuccessful in stemming the conflict.[25] Aziz claimed India had "overreacted", while India demanded that Pakistan stop the incursion intoIndian-administered Kashmir.[26] Aziz also represented Pakistan at theOrganisation of the Islamic Conference in Burkina Faso, held during the Kargil conflict.[27] Aziz later claimed in the media that Pakistan had achieved its aims in the Kargil conflict by "forcing theKashmir dispute to the top of the global agenda." He remained Foreign Minister of Pakistan till October 1999.[28]
His term ended abruptly after the Nawaz Sharif government was overthrown in amilitary coup byChairman ofJoint Chiefs of Staff Committee andChief of Army StaffGeneral Pervez Musharraf. Aziz associated with Pakistan's foreign policy after his removal and tacitly backed Pakistan's decision to conduct nuclear tests.[19] 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, Indiamobilized half a milliontroops on theborder after an attack onits parliament in 2001, but was finally forced to withdraw the "due to thedanger of anuclearretaliation by Pakistan....
— Sartaj Aziz,defending Pakistan's decision to tests its nuclear capability in 1998,[19]
In 2013, thePML(N) secured thelandslide victory during the nationwidegeneral elections, with overall ~50.1% ofpublic mandate in theNational Assembly. Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif approved the appointment of Aziz to be elevated asNational Security Adviser (NSA) on 15 May 2013.[29] Aziz drafted and had it approved the new national securitystrategy, and announced a new policy framework.
Appointed as National Security Adviser (NSA), Aziz held a meeting withMinister of External AffairsSalman Khurshid to discuss the situation inLoC.[30] Aziz's three-day official visit also included meeting withHurriyat Conference and Kashmir leaders.[31] In early months of 2014, thePPP politicians began a protest at theParliament over theforeign policy shift in regards tocivil war in Syria.[32] The protest took place after Saudi Crown princeSalman 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.[32] 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."[32]
Onnuclear weapons policy, Aziz defendedPakistan's rationale of nuclear deterrence.[33] Speaking at the general public in the United States Aziz explained 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.[33]
In a wake of deadlyPeshawar massacre in December 2014, Aziz visitedKabul and held a meeting with Afghan PresidentAshraf Ghani where he emphasized on tighter "border control".[34] In further talks with Afghan PresidentAshraf Ghani, Aziz widely quoted that "themilitary in Pakistan andsecurity forces in Afghanistan have agreed to carry out coordinated operations against terrorists along thePak-Afghan border.[35]
In October 2015, Aziz relinquish his post asNational Security Advisor toNaseer Khan Janjua (a retiredarmy general) which was viewed as to provide coordination between civilianForeign ministry and themilitary 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.[36] On 9 December 2015, Aziz hosted theHeart of Asia conference in Islamabad and met with Indian Minister of External AffairsSushma Swaraj; Aziz also accompanied Sushma Swaraj to meet with Prime Minister Sharif.[37] About theforeign intervention inSyrian civil war, Aziz explained Pakistan'spolicy on Syria inSenate in December 2015 that Pakistan is "against any attempt to topple the government ofSyrian PresidentBashar al-Assad".[38]
After the dismissal of Nawaz Sharif as prime minister,Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who succeeded Sharif, appointed Aziz as Deputy Chairman Planning Commission.[39] Aziz was among four political appointees of the previous PML-N government.[39] His goal during his short tenure was to improve the functionality of the commission.[39] He continued to work in this capacity until 31 May 2018.[39]
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During his term as Foreign minister, Aziz made an effort with neighbouring India to promote peace and harmony between two countries.[40] His leading peace activism efforts led India to declare Pakistan asMost favoured nation (MFN) in 1996.[41]
Aziz authoredBetween dreams and realities: Some Milestones in Pakistan's history, which was published in 2009 byOxford University Press.[42]
Aziz was forced out by his peers during the wave of1999 military coup d'état which started and ended the massive arrests of his colleagues and government ministers ofNawaz Sharif.[43] In 2001, Aziz joined the Department of Social Sciences of theBeaconhouse National University inLahore and served there as a professor of economics.[44] In 2009, Aziz was appointed Vice-Chancellor of Beaconhouse National University.[44]
Aziz died on 2 January 2024 inIslamabad, Pakistan, at the age of 94.[1][45]
For his participation in the Pakistan movement, Aziz is the holder of the Sanad, Mujahid-e-Pakistan.[16] In 1959, he was awarded theTamgha-e-Pakistan (Medal of Pakistan) and the Sitara-e-Khidmat in 1967 for his work in central planning and economic development.[16]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Minister of Finance 1990–1993 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of Finance 1993 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of Finance 1997–1998 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of Foreign Affairs 1998–1999 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Adviser on the Foreign Affairs 2013–2017 Serving withTariq Fatemi | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | National Security Adviser 2013–2015 | Succeeded by |
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| International | |
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| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
| Other | |
