From Banking to the Thorny World of Politics by Shaukat Aziz with Anna Mikhailova has been featured in The News, a leading newspaper in Pakistan. Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has co-authored the book which analyses the complex relationships between Pakistan and the United States, India, Afghanistan and China. Co-authored by an award-winning Sunday Times journalist Anna Mikhailova, this book provides an insider’s account of what it was like for Shaukat Aziz to join General Pervez Musharraf’s military government.

The forthcoming book focuses on how things had changed drastically just two years after Shaukat had assumed charge as Pakistan’s finance minister on November 6, 1999, as the 9/11 episode had made Pakistan a vital strategic ally in the US-led War on Terror.

Having served as prime minister of Pakistan from August 20, 2004 to November 15, 2007, and as country’s finance minister from November 6, 1999, to November 15, 2007, Shaukat Aziz had left behind a 30-year career as a senior Citibank executive to join General Musharraf’s military regime in Pakistan, following a coup on October 12, 1999, that had unceremoniously ousted Premier Nawaz Sharif from power.

Before commencing his journey through the cozy yet intriguing corridors of power in 1999, Shaukat Aziz had been the President of the Citi Private Bank in New York.

While campaigning on July 29, 2004, he had survived an assassination attempt in the small town of Fateh Jang in Attock District. He was contesting an election on a National Assembly seat from Fateh Jang, shortly before, he was appointed the country’s chief  executive. The life attempt was made when the Prime Minister-designate was departing after meeting his prospective voters and loyalists.

A suicide bomber, with explosives strapped around his body, had struck the convoy of Shaukat Aziz, when he was leaving after an election rally at Fateh Jang.

Aziz’s chauffeur was among those killed in the attack, along with eight others.

After the incident, a credible Indian news, information, entertainment and shopping web portal “Rediff.com” had quoted Aziz as saying: “I had a providential escape.”…

Read the full article on The News here. From Banking to the Thorny World of Politics is released with Quartet Books on 26 May 2016, and you can pre-order a copy from Amazon here.