Latest / Bloomberg Intelligence / Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Aziz on New Memoir (Audio)

Transcript

Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Aziz on New Memoir (Audio) · Bloomberg Intelligence

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Global business news twenty four hours a day at Bloomberg
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: dot com, the Radio plus Mobile Act and on your radio.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: This is a Bloomberg Business Flash from Bloomberg World Headquarters.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: I'm Charlie Pellett. Stocks are rallying after this morning's jobs report.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: The naz stack Compositive Index, trading above its record, closed
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: for the first time in a year, putting it on
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: the verge of joining the SMP five hundred index at
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: a record. SMP up fifteen to twenty one seventy nine,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: a gain of seven tenths of one percent. Naz stack
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: up one percent, now up fifty three points fifty two
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: nineteen on the nastack Compositive Index down Industrials up one
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: hundred sixty one points, a gain of nine tenths of
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: one percent to eighteen thousand, five hundred thirteen. The ten
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: year down twenty thirty seconds yield one point five eight percent.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Gold down twenty three ninety ounce to thirteen thirty eight,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: a drop there of one point eight percent. Crude oil
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: West Texas intermediate one eight for a barrel down nine
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: cents to drop there of two tents of one percent.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: I'm Charlie Palatin of Bloomberg Business Flash. You're listening to
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Taking Stock with Kathleen and Gim Fox on Bloomberg Radio.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Pakistan's gain is City Banks loss. After a decades long
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: career on Wall Street, our next guest went on to
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: become the Finance Minister and then the Prime Minister of Pakistan.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: I want to welcome to the program shock At Aziz.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: He's the former Prime Minister of Pakistan and the author
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: of a new book entitled From Banking to the Thorny
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: World of Politics. Prime Minister, thank you for being with us. Pleasure.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Please describe where you were and the circumstances when you
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: received a telephone call that changed your life. While I
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: was in New York three nine Park Avenue, City Bank Headquarters,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: sitting in my office, my secretary pan I was attending
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: a meeting in my conference room next to my office,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: and she came with a little piece of paper saying,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: there's somebody on the line from Pakistan. They say there's
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: some general who wants to talk to you. So I
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: thought to myself, General, I don't know many generals there,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: but I said whom Are you sure? She said yes,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: So I went out took the call, and his secretary
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: was on the line and they connected. General but Caraf
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: to me for the first time ever in my life.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: I spoke to him, hadn't seen him before, and he
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: talked about the fact that he had taken over if
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: you remember, just a few days before, and he said,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: our economies and dire straits. I need a professional who
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: is who can turn this whole economy around, because that's
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: sort of the foundation of the whole country's revival. Excuse me,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: and you seem to be one of the candidates. We
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: have sort of done an exercise of Pakistan. He's living
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: abroad and your name popped up, so I'd like you
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: to come and see me in Islam about Pakistan. And
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: that's how it started. I wonder, uh, Mr Prime Minister
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Matt Miller here with him Fox, Uh, weren't you at
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: all concerned? I mean, going from the what I would
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: assume is the fairly cushy life of a banker in
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: the corporate world, um too, a military government and a
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: uh in in a fairly involuable part of the world.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Didn't you give it a second thought before you went
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: ahead and joined General Masharaff. No, I didn't join him.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: Then I said, okay, I'll come and talk to you.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: And I then went to see Sandy while and John Reid.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: I had two bosses at the time because we had merged,
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: as do you remember with City Corp, had merged with
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: Travelers Group, so we had from one chairman and see
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: who we had to And I told him this is
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: a story, and I think I should go because he's
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: now the president of the country and if he wants
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: to see me, I think, unless you do have any objection,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: they said, no, no, because if he has called himself
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: spoken to you, what do you do in the end,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: of course, we don't know. I didn't know. Also, I said,
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: but at least I should go and talk to him.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: And at that point I wasn't certain that I would
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: really accept it or not. I didn't, you know, I've
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: never met the gentleman, so and I was. I told
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: all this to Sandy and John and they said, OK,
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: we think you should go and at least talk to
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: him so that he doesn't then later on feel that
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: you didn't respond to his request. And I took a
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: flight and went and saw him, and then you eventually
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: ended up in London on the way back to the
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: United States. And you've got another telephone call, which what
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: this this has to do with him finally find getting
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: to you? And can you know that that telephone call
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: came in New York when I was back speak then,
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: then speak a little bit about when you actually did
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: decide to I saw him and I had never met him,
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: so I was curious what he's all about. And then
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: he had me meet his sort of core group of generals.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: And this is the first time I stepped into our
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: equivalent of the Pentagon, if you know what I mean.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: So it was for that to that extent, I was curious.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: I was also also went with a lot of prepartation,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: not knowing what's in store and what they have in
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: mind and what will happen to the country. These were
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: early days. So I had a chat and they say,
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: what do you think of our economy? I said, it's
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: not well managed and you are and serious trouble. You
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: have cash flow issues, et cetera, and a lot of
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: surgery is needed. They said, Okay, after discussion, we'll come
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: back to you. We're talking to seven people. I said,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: no problem. Anytime you need free advice, just call me.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: We can talk on the phone from now on. So
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: no offer was made in that trip a couple of
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: Then I came back and that's what you're talking about.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: The second call. I came back to New York and
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: then I was doing my normal lives. One of the
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: seniors at City Bank, so we had a conference in London.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: I walked into my hotel room and the phone rank
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: and that's what you were alluding to. That's exactly what
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: happened later later, did you, Mr Franister, did you effectively
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: act as a bridge then between Pakistan and UM the
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: global investment banks that you were employed by before, or
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: did Pakistan already have a decent relationship with with banks
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: like City Yeah, Pakistan, I mean was not really dealing
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: much with the private banks. So like I mean private
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: meaning commercial banks sorry, like City Bank or JP Morgan, etcetera.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: They were mostly in the I M F World Bank
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: or but you know what I mean. They were used
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: to dealing with development institutions rather than commercial They had accounts.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: Of course, every government and every institution needs accounts to
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: clear the dollar payments in New York and so they
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: had accounts with us, but it was not an active
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: relationship I had. There was no evidence that we were
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: close to the government in any way, can you just
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: tell the story about when you were campaigning because you
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: had become a member of the parliament in order to
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: assume some of your duties, and you were campaigning in
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: the at hoc. That is correct. Tell us what happened.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: What happened is this was the last day of my campaign.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: You know, this is fast forward. I was Finance minister,
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: and then because we did a good job, we turned
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: things around. The general consensus was why don't we make
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: him the prime minister of the country. Prime ministers, you know,
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: is the chief executive, although in this case we had
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: the president also very active because he came from the
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: military at the time and he had done the coup.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: So anyway, that was the last event, and I was euphoric.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: I was very excited that the campaign has gone well.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: Blah blah blah. This was to be an empty member
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: of parliament because we had the parliamentary system of government
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: like the British have because we were a colony of Britain.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: So we followed that process, and the long story short,
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: I gave a very emotional, addressed and emotional rally of
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: several thousand people, and then it's time we finished the meeting.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: I walked out of the canopy. There was a huge
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: circus type canopy where these couple of thousand people were
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: there to get into my car, which was by now
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: in the campaign, they give you security and a bulletproof,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: bomb proof car in case somebody tries to act funny,
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: and I was. I sat in the car and about
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: five seconds later there was a huge explosion on one
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: side of the car. My driver just and this was
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: a level seven car, level seven degree of armoring of
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: a car. So it's bomb proof, bulletproof, so they say,
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: But in actual fact, there was a huge bomb which
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: exploded next to my car, and it was targeted at
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: my door. But I don't want to go into unnecessary details.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: But because of various reasons, the car had moved without
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: the person who pressed the button to explode the mom
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: knowing that. So there's these two seconds gap, and in
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: that the car had moved about three ft or two feet, sorry,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: so it hit the driver's door rather than my door.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: The driver dried instantly in my he felt like this
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: into my arms. I was behind him. It was quite
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: a shock guy and not expected this coming from Manhattan
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: in New York, who is about to have a welcome
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: like this. It's exact traumatic experience. It's exactly the kind
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: of trauma that that I'm thinking of. What conclusions did
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: you come to then, and how do you think Pakistan
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: now deals with the effects of terrorism or the people
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: that commit terrorists acts? You know, I mean, there are
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: a lot of Americans feel like Afghani's terrorists living in
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: Pakistan get their help, even though some of in Laden
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: maybe no this. So these were the ultra right. They
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: issued a statement from Cairo Egypt. Al gay that issued
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: a statement from Cairo, Egypt often the attack on me
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: that this person had been sent by the United States
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: as and to be he's their agent, and it was
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: therefore decided by our high command to eliminate him before
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: he assumes office. I think I'm gonna have to. That'll
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: have to be a great tease for your book, Mr
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: Prime Minister, because unfortunately we don't have any more time.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: But you can at his book From Banking to the
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: Thorny World of Politics and find out exactly how former
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: Prime Minister of Pakistan child cut A Ziz dealt with
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: that situation. I'm Matt Miller with pim Fox and the
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: Bloomberg advantage. This is Bloomberg