Sartaj Aziz

Sartaj Aziz (7 February 1929 – 2 January 2024) was a Pakistani economist and strategist, who had previously served as the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission of Pakistan, member of the federal cabinet as the de facto Minister for Foreign Affairs, a Federal Senator as well as the National Security Advisor.

Born in north-western British India, as a student Aziz was an activist in the Pakistan Movement.

Aziz went on to study economics at Punjab University and later studied public administration at Harvard Kennedy School.

Sartaj Aziz was born in 1929 in a Sayyid Kakakhel family in 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 joined 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.

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.

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 economic 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 policy and our economic requirements are not fully consistent, in fact they are rapidly falling out of line".

Aziz vetoed the Gibraltar against India, fearing the economic turmoil that would jolt 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.

Returning to work in the government, he attained the position of joint secretary in the Planning Commission of Pakistan in 1967.

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 Pakistan again attack India six years later, with the economy in great jeopardy without United States' assistance.

In 1971, Aziz joined the Food and Agriculture Organization and served as its Director of Commodities, later moving to the International Fund for Agricultural Development where he served as the Assistant President, Policy and Planning between December 1977 and April 1984.

Aziz later worked in the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization from 1971 to 1975, and the International Fund for Agricultural Development from 1978 to 1984.

Ashar Aziz, a Pakistani-American electrical engineer, business executive, and former billionaire is Sartaj Aziz's maternal nephew.

Aziz was Chief, International Economic Section, in the Planning Division of the Government of Pakistan, during the 1971 conflicts with India.

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's nationalization failed to make up for the "mismatch" between economic reality and policy formulation".

Aziz returned to Pakistan in 1984 and served as a junior minister for Agriculture and Food Security until 1988 under the conservative Junejo administration.

In 1984, Aziz joined the Military Government of President and Chief of Army Staff General Zia-ul-Haq as Minister 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.

He was elected to the Senate of Pakistan in 1988 and re-elected in 1993 from the center-right PML-N, and served in both Sharif administrations first as the Minister of Finance from August 1990 to June 1993 and Minister of Foreign Affairs from August 1998 until 1999 coup d'état.

He is noted as the only cabinet member who opposed the decision of conducting nuclear tests in response to India, citing 'economic reasons'.

During his tenure as the Finance Minister he was noted a strong proponent of economic liberalization.

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.

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 Minister Nawaz 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 economic system more dependent on investment, privatisation and the economical integrals penetrating through the matters of national security.

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.

In 2004, he moved to academia, and became the vice-chancellor of Beaconhouse National University; he also taught at economics at the university.

Aziz authored Between Dreams and Realities, which was published in 2009.

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.