Bashing Shaukat?

[Energon]

I was just surfing the web when I came upon this op-ed piece. Needless to say I was a bit taken aback...

Hit and run

Monday, January 14, 2008
Shakir Husain

Since about Oct 12, 2007, the news in the country and internationally hasn’t really allowed us to pay homage to a great patriot who gave us NINE years of his life and has recently left with a heavy heart for greener pastures. I speak of Shaukat Aziz, who has recently left for London and then will be attending the World Economic Summit at Davos in his “personal” capacity. Shaukat Aziz needs no introduction to the people of Pakistan, who have so much to thank him for, for his extended tour in Pakistan as finance minister and then prime minister. Mr Aziz came, he banked, and now has cashed his chips to move on, leaving his illustrious career as a politician to perhaps serve the people of another wretched country. I really don’t know what the people of Tharparkar and Attock will do without their beloved leader.

I think Shaukat Aziz is one of the most misunderstood “politicians” in the history of Pakistan. The middle class and the English-speaking minority really liked him because he wore nice suits and spoke such wonderful English, which automatically made people think that he was going to do good things for the nation. Unfortunately, what most people didn’t realise is that he was a private banker and not an economist. His job for two decades had been to help people stash away ill-gotten money in places where other people couldn’t find it, and not formulate fiscal policy to help a developing nation grow.

During the fiscal reign of Shaukat the First, the average Pakistanis saw access to unprecedented levels of cheap credit which can be compared to the United States where people bought houses in unprecedented numbers due to access to cheap credit. Being a banker, Shaukat Aziz rallied to the cause of his fellow bankers, liberalised the banking sector, and ensured that banking spreads were among the highest in the world. Needless to say, over the past eight years banks have been more profitable than they had ever been. And who got screwed in the process? The average depositor, of course. Thank you, Shaukat Aziz.

Since 1999, when Shaukat Aziz became a member of Musharraf’s “dream” team and took over as finance minister till the day he left office as prime minister, not one megawatt of electricity was added to the national grid. Yet, because of Shaukat Aziz’s policies of providing cheap credit to one and all, he can be credited with selling more consumer electronics than any advertising campaign. But if we weren’t generating more power, how was the average Pakistani supposed to run his fancy new air-conditioner and deep-freezer? Today’s power crisis, which is affecting both the consumer and the industrial user, can squarely be blamed on Shaukat Aziz’s flawed economic policies. Yes men like Dr Salman Shah who played Robin to Shaukat’s Batman should be ashamed of themselves for not speaking out when they could have. Maybe if this lot had spent less time jetting around the globe and running their self-promotional PR exercises, and focused on their jobs we wouldn’t find ourselves in the mess we are in today.

Shaukat Aziz and his economic dream team can also be squarely held responsible for the disastrous food insecurity Pakistanis are facing today. There is an atta crisis in the land today and prices have spiralled out of control because Mr Aziz decided to allow the export of wheat as a political favour a little before he took off for London. According to news reports, a rice crisis is also in the pipeline. While Mr Aziz was more partial to scones, he should have known that his trickledown effect hadn’t quite brought his constituents to the same culinary level as him.

Our alternate energy policy is also one of the most backward in the region. Permissions to set up wind farms have been doled out to cronies and political allies like party favours. For instance, the former foreign minister’s son has been given the green light to set up a wind farm in Sindh in record time, while others had to wait with applications in hand till some secretary found time to meet them. While our neighbours are generating electricity from wind and solar sources, our grid relies on expensive oil and gas sources. Sweetheart deals all around for everyone. Sad, but we can thank the dream team.

The fallout from some of the flawed policies of the last ten years will be felt in the coming years in the form of spiralling inflation, high interest rates, higher utility bills, and more; but they’re not because of ineptitude or lack of resources, rather of picking the wrong guy for the job. Hiring a private banker to do the job of a policy economist is like getting a plumber to fix your car’s engine. I do believe in divine justice and Shaukat Aziz was vying for Citibank’s top job and was lobbying hard for it, yet the board, instead, picked an Indian with an impeccable reputation. Mr Aziz is currently at Davos in his “personal” capacity, no doubt looking for a plum opportunity. While I personally don’t hold a grudge against him, I would urge him not to return to his home constituency of Tharparkar or Attock anytime soon.

Is this true? Does this really reflect Shaukat Aziz's policies?

 

[mujahideen]

Shaukat Aziz will probably know as the person to turn around Pakistan's economy. In my opinion he served the nation, I mean he was making a lot more at Citi Bank but choose to serve Pakistan. But with the ecnomy slipping now, he will probably be brought back with a high level job. He can get people to invest in Pakistan.

 

[yarmook]

It is a biased article, all people who did something for the country have been criticized extensively.

 

[MastanKhan]

Hi,

The writer is correct about the constituency issues. They knew who he was before they got in bed with him. He has done his job. It is time for others to pick it up and move ahead.

 

[blain2]

Its a bloody lie blaming the "atta" crises on SA or the current govt. I did some research on this issue as someone else had brought up the same BS last week.

Pakistan has only allowed export of half a million tons of Wheat from a total production of approximately 20 million tons. Are we to believe what this joker is telling us that this is the sole reason that the country is facing a shortage now? The problem is one of hoarding in the specific case of wheat. For that the blame lays with the business community.

This is the reason we have Rangers deployed at the Mills and FC deployed to stop smuggling over to Afghanistan.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

My beef with him was primarily over his role in curtailing the autonomy of the FPSC.

Most of the charges directed at him in the article are actually a testament to how well he was able to apply free market reforms to the local economy. Soaring corporate profits and the rich getting richer, similar complaints to what has been happening in the US. But it is because of soaring corporate profits that companies have expanded and invested in Pakistan.

Too many people in Pakistan still cling to a the dream of a socialist Utopia. The government does not have the money to provide all the services to its people that a socialist state might provide, and curtailing corporate profits (bar essential products like food etc.) will hamper Govt. revenue growth and perpetuate that revenue shortage.

 

[blain2]

Too many people in Pakistan still cling to a the dream of a socialist Utopia. The government does not have the money to provide all the services to its people that a socialist state might provide, and curtailing corporate profits (bar essential products like food etc.) will hamper Govt. revenue growth and perpetuate that revenue shortage.

Excellent point AM and I attribute this dream to lack of understanding about how the global economy has evolved. In Pakistan, so many people are crying about things getting worse, part of the reason is that no more freebies are being given out in the form of subsidies. You either give subsidies or pay down the debt and sort out the deficit.

People complain about not getting jobs, in my opinion, no one can say that they can't get A job in Pakistan because the jobs are plenty, the problem is they are no longer "sarkari" jobs. Many people in Pakistan and especially the die hard supporters of PPP (Jialay) live for the sarkari naukrian and that is what they promise their supporters if the Party comes to power. Successive governments of the past have tried to go down the path of subsidies and accommodating free loaders into the government and other jobs and the result has been disastrous. The only way out for Pakistan is to have market based economy that allows the Government to be able to grow the tax base and in turn use the monies for social services (I know I have simplified the issue somewhat, but in a nutshell this is what it is).

As far as crying about credit proliferation, then the author should be complaining about lack of fiscal discipline in people instead of crying about the availability of credit for all and sundry (if used carefully and within reason, credit is an asset).

BTW, found another link to the atta issue that provides more updated numbers on Pakistani production:

Taking serious notice of the wheat and flour crisis, President Musharraf said the country’s wheat production stood at 23 million tons and the problem occurred because of smuggling and hoarding. “There will be an improvement in the next few days.”

Musharraf rules out national govt -DAWN - Top Stories; January 15, 2008

 

[Spring Onion]

i am not good at economy but as far as Shaukat Aziz is concerned well he is a professional economist and i remember how did he added to national exchequr by including entertainment tax in the power utility bills.
he knows well how to formulate economic policies that help the country.

this report well i think its same old Mentality that if someone working with WB and than came to native country to serve without any self-intrest is carrying WB agenda.

I think we need to do away with this kinda mentality.

 

[khanz]

i am not good at economy but as far as Shaukat Aziz is concerned well he is a professional economist and i remember how did he added to national exchequr by including entertainment tax in the power utility bills.
he knows well how to formulate economic policies that help the country.

this report well i think its same old Mentality that if someone working with WB and than came to native country to serve without any self-intrest is carrying WB agenda.

I think we need to do away with this kinda mentality.

totally agree

 

[F.O.X]

No one is 100% ok every man has a defect so did SA, but the thing is that who is batter then whom, & in my opinion SA was far more batter then the previours PM's we had.


Regards
Wilco

 

[dabong1]

Good riddance

 

[blain2]

Good riddance

Come now...something of substance would be better than the above..

 

[Asghar]

Good riddance

That is total ignorance and seemingly from someone who implies that they do not want Pakistan to prosper.

 

[dabong1]

That is total ignorance and seemingly from someone who implies that they do not want Pakistan to prosper.

For people like you and me...with computers,cars,mobiles.... his is great!
But for people without all the above luxurys who struggle to put a meal on the table for there family's he has bought nothing but higher prices and followed the IMF dictates like a true believer,
When did the IMF actually make a country better off?
The gap between the rich and poor has increased under Mushy/Shaukat with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.