No return to politics in immediate future: Shaukat
By Our Correspondent
WASHINGTON, Feb 1: Former prime minister Shaukat Aziz has said that he has no plan to rejoin politics in the immediate future as he wants a break from the busy schedule he had as the head of a government.
“I ran in the last elections, as you know. This time we — my wife and I — have decided to take a break,” Mr Aziz told Forbes magazine.
“After eight years of 24/7, of not one day off, no holiday for eight years, we thought we’d take a break. We’ll see how things develop in the future. These elections, I gave a pass.”
Mr Aziz also said that he has no immediate plan to return to the private sector he left to join the government in Pakistan. “We’ve said we’ll take three months and then decide,” he said.
The US magazine interviewed Mr Aziz in London where he has been living with his daughters and grand children since he left Islamabad last month.
Mr Aziz disagreed with the suggestion that American companies and investors may pull out of Pakistan because of the political turmoil. “No investor has pulled out. Our stock market has come back nicely,” he said.
Noting that potentially China is a major source of capital for Pakistan, Mr Aziz said that the country is also attracting investment from the Far East, Japan and Britain. The former prime minister claimed that the average Pakistani is better off now than when President Pervez Musharraf took charge.
He said that eight years ago Pakistan’s per capita income was close to $400. This year it will cross $1,000 per capita. Levels of poverty, which were as high as the 36 per cent area, are down substantially.
But Mr Aziz acknowledged that still one out of four people in Pakistan lives below the poverty line.
The former prime minister, however, warned that Pakistan faces many challenges in the immediate future, including the holding of elections on Feb 18, high oil prices in the international market, and a slowdown in the global economy.
“But Pakistan will stand out as a good model for countries which were in dire straits. Our philosophy was deregulation, liberalisation and privatisation, coupled with comprehensive reforms,” he said.
Mr Aziz said that there’s no reason for multinationals and investors in Pakistan to get worried. He said that whenever a country goes through a democratic election, there is uncertainty about who will win and what the policy will be after that.
“Long-term investors have learned to live with this, whether it is the US or a developing country. Pakistan has a population of 160 million, with 100 million people below age 25. That makes Pakistan very attractive because these 100 million young people will enter the job market.”
Mr Aziz strongly rejected the suggestion that a political crisis could also endanger Pakistan’s nuclear weapons. “Pakistan is not a banana republic. Its nuclear assets are well secured,” he said.
“We have a strong military which protects these. Discussions about the country falling apart are as ridiculous as they sound. Pakistan’s nuclear weapons are a source of strength and assure peace in the region.”
Mr Aziz said Pakistan has paid a huge price for being a neighbour with Afghanistan and for supporting the global coalition during the Afghan war. He refused to speculate who might have killed PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto.
