Biography

Shaukat Aziz was born in Karachi on 6 March 1949. He received his entire education in Pakistan – first studying at Corks Private School, then St Patrick’s High School, which was run by Catholic missionaries in Karachi, as well as spending a year at boarding school in Abbottabad. He received his bachelor’s degree at Gordon College, Rawalpindi, majoring in physics and chemistry, and later joined the Institute of Business Administration in Karachi to do an MBA.

Aziz joined Citibank straight after finishing his MBA and began a 30 year global career. As Executive Vice President, he held several senior management positions in Citibank including being head of institutional banking for Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa and later for Asia Pacific, and finally Chief Executive of Citibank’s Global Wealth Management Business. He worked on the corporate and investment side of the business throughout. One of Aziz’s legacies was spearheading the effort to clean up Citibank’s private bank, a subject he was later invited to share insights on by US Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill at the G20 Finance Ministers’ meeting.

Shaukat Aziz left Citibank to join the government as Finance Minister in Pakistan, following a military takeover in 1999. Two years later, 9/11 made Pakistan a vital strategic ally in the War on Terror and Aziz negotiated the vital aid package from the United States.

Aziz carried out broad-based structural reform and negotiated an unprecedented debt relief initiative, helped by the United States and the Paris Club. This eventually helped free the country from its draconian IMF programme and gave it economic sovereignty. Pakistan’s GDP growth rocketed to 7.7% in 2005, averaging 4.9% during Aziz’s time in power, and poverty levels declined from 32.1% in 1999 to 17% in 2007.

While campaigning to be Prime Minister, Aziz survived a suicide bombing by Al Qaeda. His driver died in his arms while they were leaving an election rally in Fateh Jang, a town in Attock, in 29 July 2004. The incident reinforced Aziz’s desire to serve his country.

He was elected Prime Minister on 27 August 2004, and sworn in on the following day.

As Prime Minister, Aziz took a key role in Pakistan’s dealings with Afghanistan, as well as expanding its ties with the United States, China, Russia and the Middle East.

He retained his portfolio as Finance Minister throughout, and continued to steer the country’s structural reform programme and economic revival.

Aziz is a senior visiting research fellow at Green Templeton College, Oxford University, and an Honorary Doctor of Laws at the Institute of Business Administration, University of Karachi, where he had received his MBA. In 2014, Mr. Aziz received an Honorary Doctorate in Business Administration from the East Asia University, Bangkok Thailand.