Shaukat Aziz clearly remembers the phone call that changed his life. It was 1999 and Aziz was working at a senior position in Citibank, New York. “One day, I was in a meeting in the conference room when my secretary came in with a slip [note],” he tells Weekend Review. “There was call from Rawalpindi — she couldn’t even pronounce it — and she asked if I could take the call.” Perplexed, Aziz did.
On the other end of the line was General Pervez Musharraf, who had orchestrated a military coup and overthrown the democratically elected government of Nawaz Sharif only a few days earlier. “He [Musharraf] said the economy is in serious trouble … You and I have never met … and I also understand you have never met any of my core command. I said, ‘No, sitting in New York I have no opportunity or reason to meet anybody’. He said my name had been given to him as a potential candidate for some position in the government. I told him I had never applied [for any post]. He said, ‘We have our own sources to find out where the good people are’.”
And so Aziz flew to Pakistan to meet Musharraf. “This was the first time I had stepped into the GHQ [General Headquarters of the Pakistan Army]. I was impressed by Musharraf’s candour and his desire to do something. I think I spent 45 minutes with him, and then a couple of hours with the rest of his team. Then he met me at his residence … he told me that they were looking at other candidates, too, and would let me know.”
Aziz then returned to New York. “A few weeks later, there was a call from General Aziz [Khan]. He offered me the position of minister of finance and commerce. I told him that the two are different, and with the economy in dire straits, finance itself would require full-time attention. I requested them to give this to somebody else, which they did, several weeks later.”
Jax makes a rash decision to cancel her wedding by text on the day she’s due to marry her fiancé. Her life has quickly fallen to pieces and, when she is sent to Majorca on a cookery course, things can’t get any worse. Despite being the daughter of a TV chef, Jax hates cooking. But she grows to love food as her love life is reignited. An inspirational novel showing the importance of self-worth. There’s hope for us all! *****
politicians and what used to be known as the upper echelons of society.
The memoir charts Aziz leaving a 30-year career as a senior Citibank executive to join the military regime in Pakistan following the 1999 coup.
riends urged him to write his memoirs, which are published this month. ‘From Banking to the Thorny World of Politics’ is a unique take on two of the institutions that have such an impact on our daily lives.
is entrancing memoir by Sonia Melchett opens with a vivid portrait of her colonial upbringing. She was born in India, in 1925, to a tiger-shooting Army doctor, and her first memory was of being carried on his shoulders through a plague of locusts. Danger and drama stalked her childhood. There were snakes in the cot and jackals at the door – she even witnessed the theoretically banned suttee, or self-immolation by a widow.