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Of Hawks and Doves

By Nadya Chishty-Mujahid | February 2021

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For most pople, Sartaj Aziz needs no introduction. One of our most distinguished sons from the tribal north, Aziz’s star-studded career has included positions such as finance minister, foreign minister, long-term senator, and ones involving important work for the United Nations. Although he carefully and comprehensively outlines his perception of Pakistani history and governance dating from the sixties almost to the present day, that type of general outline is well-known to the average, educated Pakistani. This review therefore honours the image of Aziz as he is portrayed in his own words, and gives a sense of the man behind the titles. An astute historian and government servant, Niccolo Machiavelli, noted: ‘It is not titles that reflect honour on men but men on their titles.’ This is evident from a perusal of Aziz’s striking tome.

Hailing from Mardan—his birthplace—where his father held notable positions, such as tehsildar, Aziz comes from a highly respected Pakhtun family that values sound character and education over and above ambition. Although he lost his mother at a tender age, Aziz speaks with genuine affection and respect for his stepmother, who raised him and his sister as if they were her own. A life-altering meeting during a prize winning ceremony with the great M A Jinnah inspired the young man to devote his life to a career of public service. Instead of pursuing law (which his father ardently desired for him), Aziz entered the development sector, and by means of the civil service, cemented his early career. He was paramount, both nationally and internationally, in working in areas such as food and agriculture, but his undeniable financial acumen led him to serve as a remarkably competent finance minister, and his diplomatic skills (respected by the Indians, Chinese, Americans, and obviously Pakistanis) enabled him to serve the country’s foreign policy interests with dedication and a staunch display of ethics in his capacity as finance minister.

Perhaps his closest and most influential relationship was with former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, but even others such as Muhammad Khan Junejo acknowledged (indeed just after a single meeting over dinner) that Aziz’s vision for the country’s betterment was both sincere and practical. His delineation of the clash between Ghulam Ishaq Khan’s rule-oriented mentality and Nawaz Sharif’s imperious autocratic attitude is especially intriguing and well-laid out. Although generally tactful, Aziz does not mince words when needed, stating that had Benazir not adopted a confrontational stance towards acquiring power in the Punjab (which was impossible for her, given Sharif’s popular political dominance in the province) her association with both Nawaz Sharif and his supporters would have been far more harmonious. He exhibits loyalty towards Sharif not simply because the latter recognized and fully utilized his potential but also because he provided a measure of stability to the country over the course of three terms, until he was besieged towards the tail-end of his career.

Always a pacifist at heart, Aziz understood the need for the country’s nuclear development program but was inordinately (and sensibly) restrained when it came to advocating nuclear conflict with India. Indeed, he was truly horrified at the loss of life in the Kargil conflict, not simply because the offensive violated the Lahore Declaration he had worked so hard with A B Vajpayee’s team to establish, but also because the army in general and President (General) Musharraf in particular did not seem to view the massive ‘carpet bombing’ of Pakistanis by Indians as much more than necessary collateral damage. On a lighter note, at one point in the book he makes a distinction between doves (that advocate peace), hawks (that advocate aggression) and ‘Hoves’ (that fall somewhere in between and have the unhappy task of sitting on the fence regarding military and security matters)! Be that as it may, along with being a virtuously dove-like pacifist, he is very much a civilian at heart and while his knowledge of security matters is finely tuned, there are examples throughout the book of his subtle, ideological differences with the military.

This point just illustrates that one man’s meat is another man’s poison and his underscoring of financial tensions and troubles during Imran Khan’s regime highlight the fact that his financial acumen was much stronger than that of many members of Prime Minister Khan’s government. Earlier in the book, he even makes note of Benazir’s mistake in not appointing an actual finance minister and trying to handle the country’s portfolio herself, with V A Jaffery simply serving as a financial advisor. He is also critical of the fact that security and intel experts under President Asif Zardari’s government may well have known that Osama Bin Laden was residing a stone’s throw from the Kakul Military Academy but chose to be apathetic about the matter until the Americans stepped in aggressively.

This laundry list of chosen comments here underlies an enormous amount of work done by Aziz in liaising with China and the United States on foreign policy issues, working towards vital Senate matters (about the fine points of which he displayed both intuitive and experiential understanding), and furthering the development of the country while remaining true to Jinnah’s overarching vision.

Aziz’s interpersonal skills appear to be cut from the same cloth as those of the charismatic and refined Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. A highly accomplished linguist (fluent in English, Urdu, Pushto, Punjabi, Persian, and Italian), he was able to converse in Pushto with Mullah Omar (never an easy person to deal with) in order to retrieve the dead bodies of nine Iranis who were killed in the Mazar-e-Sharif attack. He equally readily charmed Rouhani of Iran at a later date by speaking eloquently to him in Persian, and gradually won the respect of international leaders as diverse as Bill Clinton, Hamid Karzai and Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Unassuming and modest, Aziz shies throughout the book from praising himself, but it is impossible for him to write a truthful account of his career without bringing to light some of the hard-won high regard in which he was held by many. His pertinent comments on FATA reforms towards the end of the book bring one back full circle to the tribal north of which he now (in his tenth decade of life) deserves to be regarded as an especially proud and worthy son. Given the intrinsic pride and virtue inherent in the Pakhtun people, that is no mean compliment.

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