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.
The writer is an entrepreneur and business consultant. Email:
shakir@gmail. com
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