ISLAMABAD, 29 August 2004 — Pakistan’s former Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz, a key ally of President Pervez Musharraf, was sworn in as prime minister yesterday and won a vote of confidence that was boycotted by the opposition.
The opposition had also boycotted the parliamentary vote that elected Musharraf’s handpicked prime minister Friday in protest at the Parliament’s speaker’s refusal to allow their candidate, who is in jail, to attend the session.
Yesterday’s vote of confidence, boycotted by 150 opposition lawmakers, was a constitutional formality required to complete the installation of Aziz, a soft-spoken professional with no political background, as prime minister.
Speaking in the National Assembly on Saturday after a swearing-in ceremony and after winning a vote of confidence, Aziz vowed: “The process of economic reforms will continue so that people get more (job) opportunities and poverty and unemployment is eradicated.”
Aziz, a technocrat, vowed more economic reforms. A former Citibank executive who is credited with turning around the economic fortunes of Pakistan, Aziz was elected to the post on Friday by a vote in the National Assembly, a formality given its pro-military majority.
Musharraf, dressed in a suit rather than military uniform, stood alongside Aziz at the President’s House as the two men read the swearing-in oath.
Speaking to reporters after the ceremony, Musharraf said the “smooth transfer of power” augured well for democracy. “The political culture is gradually maturing in Pakistan,” he said.
Aziz, 55, is a smooth-talking banker who worked 30 years as a Citibank executive before becoming finance minister when Musharraf took power in a bloodless coup in 1999. Suave, articulate and media-savvy, Aziz is credited with reforming an economy that was crippled by international sanctions imposed after Pakistan tested nuclear weapons in 1998.
Aziz was chosen for the job after Zafarullah Jamali resigned in June in a transfer of power planned by Musharraf. He is expected to form his Cabinet early next week. Musharraf, who seized power in a coup in 1999, and Aziz said after the swearing-in ceremony that democracy was being strengthened in Pakistan.
“Democracy is maturing in Pakistan,” Musharraf said. But the opposition slammed the election as a sham. “This is a farce, a complete farce, we don’t call it election,” opposition MP Tehmina Daultana told AFP.
Nisar Ali Khan, a leader in the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy, a 15-party opposition coalition, condemned the speaker’s decision as “undemocratic and unparliamentary.”
Speaking in the National Assembly after the vote of confidence, Aziz promised “competent, efficient and good governance” and called for national consensus on vital issues. He said internal security was the biggest challenge. Aziz narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in July and Musharraf has been targeted at least three times.
Aziz paid tribute to Musharraf and said he would continue to draw on his “wisdom and experience.”
“The president is a great asset of the country, who pulled the country out of its hardest phase in history and put it on the path to development and prosperity,” Aziz said.
After the swearing-in, Aziz said the peaceful transfer of power was “indication that our democracy is maturing in Pakistan. It’s the start of a new era to build a strong and vibrant Pakistan,” he told reporters.
The new prime minister also said Pakistan would continue its efforts for peace in Kashmir, the Himalayan state divided between Pakistan and India and cause of two wars between them.
Friday’s vote united the divided opposition, with the religious Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal Alliance joining hands with the secular Alliance for Restoration of Democracy to protest that their candidate for the prime minister’s job, Javed Hashmi, could not attend the election. Hashmi is serving a 23-year sentence after a court convicted him in April of distributing a letter he had said was from army officers criticizing Musharraf.
Analysts said Musharraf had elevated Aziz to the top job to ensure his policies were adequately implemented and secure his grip on power.
Musharraf would feel more comfortable with a non-political head of government, they said. “Aziz will play a second fiddle role to Musharraf,” political analyst Afzal Niazi told AFP.
“There will be a better relation between the president and the prime minister because Musharraf knows Aziz better than he knew Jamali,” Niazi said.
“Musharraf will continue to be the boss and preside over the governmental process,” analyst Hasan Askari told AFP. “The attempt appears to divorce governance and economic development from political affairs,” he said.
“Key strategic policy issues will be taken care of by the president as was the case in the past, governance and economic development by Aziz and politics will be pushed aside to be managed by the ruling Muslim League party,” he said.
Officials and analysts said there would be no change in Pakistan’s policies such as support for the US-led “war on terror”. They say Musharraf, who wields ultimate power, would continue to lead the fight against militancy and direct foreign policy while Aziz’s focus would remain on the economy.
Aziz won plaudits from colleagues and financial markets for pushing through reforms that brought Pakistan back from the verge of bankruptcy after Musharraf seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999.
Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, the information minister in the former Cabinet, said Aziz would announce his cabinet on Tuesday or Wednesday. Aziz is expected to retain key ministers, including Foreign Minister Khursheed Mehmud Kasuri, who has represented Pakistan in peace talks with nuclear-armed neighbor India, officials said.
Aziz needed to win a seat in Parliament’s lower house National Assembly to make him eligible for the post. Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain had taken over as interim prime minister. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pledged to strengthen friendship and cooperation with Pakistan in a letter yesterrday to Aziz, the Indian Foreign Ministry said in New Delhi.
