text: While the chiefs conferred, Northern Rhodesia became independent Zambia on 24 October 1964, emulating Nyasaland, which had achieved statehood as Malawi three months earlier. Reasoning that it was no longer necessary to refer to itself as "Southern" in the absence of a northern counterpart, Southern Rhodesia began calling itself simply Rhodesia. The same day, the commander of the Rhodesian Army, Major-General John "Jock" Anderson, resigned, announcing publicly that he was doing so because of his opposition to UDI, which he said he could not go along with because of his oath of allegiance to the Queen. Interpreting this as a sign that Smith intended to declare independence if a majority backed it in the referendum, Wilson wrote a stiff letter to Smith on 25 October, warning him of the consequences of UDI, and demanding "a categorical assurance forthwith that no attempt at a unilateral declaration of independence on your part will be made". Smith expressed confusion as to what he had done to provoke this, and ignored it.


title: Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence

text: When the "indaba" ended on 26 October, the chiefs and headmen returned a unanimous decision to support the government's stand for independence under the 1961 constitution, attesting in their report that "people who live far away do not understand the problems of our country". This verdict was rejected by the nationalist movement on the grounds that the chiefs received governmental salaries; the chiefs countered that the black MPs in parliamentary opposition also received such salaries, but still opposed the government. Malvern, who was becoming perturbed by the RF's actions, dismissed the "indaba" as a "swindle", asserting that the chiefs no longer had any real power; the British simply ignored the whole exercise. On 27 October, Wilson released a firm statement regarding Britain's intended response to UDI, warning that Rhodesia's economic and political ties with Britain, the Commonwealth and most of the world would be immediately severed amid a campaign of sanctions if Smith's government went ahead with UDI. This was intended to discourage white Rhodesians from voting for independence in the referendum, for which the RF campaign slogan was "Yes means Unity, not UDI". Wilson was pleased when Douglas-Home, his leading opponent in the House of Commons, praised the statement as "rough but right". On 5 November 1964, Rhodesia's mostly white electorate voted "yes" to independence under the 1961 constitution by a margin of 89%, prompting Smith to declare that the British condition of acceptability to the people as a whole had been met.


text: Smith wrote to Wilson the day after the referendum, asking him to send Bottomley to Salisbury for talks. Wilson replied that Smith should instead come to London. The British and Rhodesians exchanged often confrontational letters for the next few months. Alluding to the British financial aid pledged to Salisbury as part of the Federal dissolution arrangements, Wilson's High Commissioner in Salisbury, J B Johnston, wrote to the Rhodesian Cabinet Secretary Gerald B Clarke on 23 December that "talk of a unilateral declaration of independence is bound to throw a shadow of uncertainty on the future financial relations between the two governments". Smith was furious, seeing this as blackmail, and on 13 January 1965 wrote to Wilson: "I am so incensed at the line of your High Commissioner's letter that I am replying directly to you ... It would appear that any undertakings given by the British government are worthless ... such immoral behaviour on the part of the British government makes it impossible for me to continue negotiations with you with any confidence that our standards of fair play, honesty and decency will prevail."


text: The two premiers were brought together in person in late January 1965, when Smith travelled to London for Sir Winston Churchill's funeral. Following an episode concerning Smith's non-invitation to a luncheon at Buckingham Palace after the funeral—noticing the Rhodesian's absence, the Queen sent a royal equerry to Smith's hotel to retrieve him, reportedly causing Wilson much irritation—the two Prime Ministers inconclusively debated at 10 Downing Street. They differed on most matters, but agreed on a visit to Rhodesia the next month by Bottomley and the Lord Chancellor, Lord Gardiner, to gauge public opinion and meet political and commercial figures. Bottomley and Gardiner visited Rhodesia from 22 February to 3 March, collected a wide cross-section of opinions, including some from black Rhodesians, and on returning to Britain reported to the House of Commons that they were "not without hope of finding a way towards a solution that will win the support of all communities and lead to independence and prosperity for all Rhodesians". Bottomley also condemned black-on-black political violence, and dismissed the idea of introducing majority rule through military force.


text: The RF called a new general election for May 1965 and, campaigning on an election promise of independence, won all 50 "A"-roll seats (the voters for which were mostly white). Josiah Gondo, leader of the United People's Party, became Rhodesia's first black Leader of the Opposition. Opening parliament on 9 June, Gibbs told the Legislative Assembly that the RF's strengthened majority amounted to "a mandate to lead the country to its full independence", and announced that the new government had informed him of its intent to open its own diplomatic mission in Lisbon, separate from the British embassy there. The British and Rhodesians argued about this unilateral act by Salisbury, described by the historian J R T Wood as the "veritable straw in the wind", alongside the independence issue until Portugal accepted the mission in late September, much to Britain's fury and Rhodesia's delight. Hoping to bring Smith to heel by stonewalling him, Wilson's ministers deliberately delayed and frustrated the Rhodesian government in negotiations. Rhodesia was again excluded from the Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference in 1965. The UK's refusal of aid, the Lisbon mission, the informal arms embargo and other issues combined with this to cause the Rhodesian government's sense of alienation from Britain and the Commonwealth to deepen. In his memoirs, Smith accused the British of "resorting to politics of convenience and appeasement". Wilson, meanwhile, became exasperated by what he saw as Rhodesian inflexibility, describing the gap between the two governments as "between different worlds and different centuries".


text: Amid renewed rumours of an impending Rhodesian UDI, Smith travelled to meet Wilson in London at the start of October 1965, telling the press that he intended to resolve the independence issue once and for all. Both the British and the Rhodesians were surprised by the large numbers of Britons who came out to support Smith during his visit. Smith accepted an invitation from the BBC to appear on its "Twenty-Four Hours" evening news and current affairs programme, but Downing Street blocked this at the last minute. Following largely abortive talks with Wilson, the Rhodesian Prime Minister flew home on 12 October. Desperate to avert UDI, Wilson travelled to Salisbury two weeks later to continue negotiations.


text: During these discussions, Smith referred to the last resort of a UDI on many occasions, though he said he hoped to find another way out of the quandary. He offered to increase black legislative representation by expanding the electorate along the lines of "one taxpayer, one vote"—which would enfranchise about half a million, but still leave most of the nation voteless—in return for a grant of independence. Wilson said this was insufficient, and countered that future black representation might be better safeguarded by Britain's withdrawal from the colonial government of the power it had held since 1923 to determine the size and makeup of its parliament. The Rhodesians were horrified by this prospect, particularly as Wilson's suggestion of it seemed to them to have removed the failsafe alternative of keeping the "status quo". Before the British Prime Minister left Rhodesia on 30 October 1965, he proposed a Royal Commission to gauge public opinion in the colony regarding independence under the 1961 constitution, possibly chaired by the Rhodesian Chief Justice Sir Hugh Beadle, which would report its findings to both the British and Rhodesian Cabinets. Wilson confirmed in the House of Commons two days later that he intended to introduce direct British control over the Rhodesian parliamentary structure to ensure that progress was made towards majority rule.


text: Stalemate drew closer as the Rhodesian Cabinet resolved that since Wilson had ruled out maintenance of the "status quo", its only remaining options were to trust in the Royal Commission or declare independence. When the terms for the commission's visit were presented to Smith, he found that contrary to what had been discussed during the British Prime Minister's visit, the Royal Commission would operate on the basis that the 1961 constitution was unacceptable to the British government, and that Britain would not commit itself to accepting the final report. Smith said these conditions amounted to a "vote of no confidence in [the commission] before they commenced", and therefore rejected them. "The impression you left with us of a determined effort to resolve our constitutional problem has been utterly dissipated", he wrote to Wilson on 5 November. "It would seem that you have now finally closed the door which you publicly claimed to have opened."


text: Amid frantic efforts by Beadle and others on both sides to revive the Royal Commission, the Rhodesian government had Gibbs announce a state of emergency the same day on the grounds that black Rhodesian insurgents were reportedly entering the country. Smith denied that this foreshadowed a declaration of independence, but the publishing of his letter to Wilson in the press provoked a worldwide storm of speculation that UDI was imminent. Smith wrote again to Wilson on 8 November, asking him to appoint the Royal Commission under the terms they had agreed in Salisbury and to commit the British government to accepting its ruling, but Wilson did not immediately reply. On 9 November, the Rhodesian Cabinet sent a letter to Queen Elizabeth II, assuring her that Rhodesia would remain loyal to her personally "whatever happens".


text: The Rhodesian Minister for Justice and Law and Order, Desmond Lardner-Burke, presented the rest of the Cabinet with a draft for the declaration of independence on 5 November 1965. When Jack Howman, Minister of Tourism and Information, said that he was also preparing a draft, the Cabinet decided to wait to see his version too. The ministers agreed that if an independence proclamation were issued, they would all sign it. On 9 November, the Cabinet jointly devised an outline for the proclamation document and the accompanying statement to be made by Smith. The final version of the declaration of independence was prepared by a sub-committee of civil servants headed by Gerald Clarke, the Cabinet Secretary, with the United States Declaration of Independence of 1776, the only other such proclamation ever issued by British colonials, used as a model. Strongly alluding to Thomas Jefferson's text throughout, the Rhodesians used one phrase verbatim—"a respect for the opinions of mankind"—but no reference was made to the assertion that "all men are created equal", nor to the "consent of the governed", two omissions later stressed by a number of commentators.


text: Attached to the declaration of independence was a copy of the 1961 constitution amended for the circumstances, which became the 1965 constitution. In the eyes of the Smith administration, this document removed Whitehall's remaining authority over Rhodesia and made Rhodesia a "de jure" independent state. However, the Smith government still professed loyalty to Elizabeth II, and accordingly the document reconstituted Rhodesia as a Commonwealth realm with Elizabeth as "Queen of Rhodesia". The new constitution created the concept of allegiance to the "Constitution of Rhodesia," and introduced the post of Officer Administering the Government, a viceregal figure empowered to sign passed legislation into law on behalf of the monarch if she did not appoint a Governor-General.


text: The Rhodesian Cabinet waited in vain for Wilson's reply for the rest of 9 November and the next day. After briefly meeting Smith late on 10 November, Johnston warned Wilson that evening that the Rhodesians seemed poised to declare independence in the morning. The British Prime Minister tried repeatedly to call Smith, but did not get through until Smith was already chairing a Cabinet meeting on the independence issue around 08:00 Central Africa Time (06:00 in London) on 11 November. Wilson attempted to talk Smith out of unilateral action by telling him the "status quo" could continue, and the two argued inconclusively about the proposed Royal Commission. Returning to his Cabinet meeting, Smith reported the conversation to his ministers, and, after debating for a while, the Cabinet came to the conclusion that Wilson was simply attempting to buy more time and that there was no sign of actual progress. Smith asked if Rhodesia should declare its independence, and had each Cabinet minister answer in turn. According to Smith's account, "each one, quietly but firmly, without hesitation, said: 'Yes'."


text: At 11:00 local time on 11 November 1965, Armistice Day, during the traditional two minutes' silence to remember the fallen of the two World Wars, Smith declared Rhodesia independent and signed the proclamation document, with Dupont and the other 10 ministers of the Cabinet following. The timing was intended to emphasise the sacrifices Rhodesia had made for Britain in wartime. As Ken Flower later said, "the rebellion was made to appear as though it was not a rebellion". Smith and his ministers still pledged allegiance to Queen Elizabeth II, whose official portrait hung prominently behind them as they signed; the declaration even ended "God Save The Queen". Four junior members of the Cabinet—Lance Smith, Ian Dillon, Andrew Dunlop and P K van der Byl—did not sign, but were included in the official photograph.


text: Prompted by the government, the Rhodesian Broadcasting Corporation told the public to stand by for an important announcement from the Prime Minister at 13:15 local time. Smith went first to Government House to inform Gibbs that his Cabinet had declared independence, then to Pockets Hill Studios in east Salisbury to announce UDI to the nation. He read the proclamation aloud, then stated that independence had been declared because it had become "abundantly clear that it is the policy of the British government to play us along with no real intention of arriving at a solution which we could possibly accept ... I promised the people of this country that I would continue to negotiate to the bitter end and that I would leave no stone unturned in my endeavours to secure an honourable and mutually accepted settlement; it now falls to me to tell you that negotiations have come to an end".


text: Smith said that he believed that he would be remiss in his duty if he allowed Rhodesia to continue to "drift in its present paralysing state of uncertainty", and that following Britain's abandonment of the Federation his government was determined that "the same will never be allowed to happen here". He claimed that UDI did not mark "a diminution in the opportunities which our African people have to advance and prosper in Rhodesia", described "racial harmony in Africa" as part of his agenda and condemned black Rhodesian activities as attempts to "blackmail the British government into ... handing the country over to irresponsible rule". He then attempted to assuage fears that economic sanctions might destroy the economy, and asked Rhodesians to stand firm: "The mantle of the pioneers has fallen on our shoulders ... In the lives of most nations there comes a moment when a stand has to be made for principles, whatever the consequences. This moment has come to Rhodesia ... the first Western nation in the last two decades to say 'so far and no further'." He concluded with an assertion that the declaration of independence was "a blow for the preservation of justice, civilisation and Christianity".


text: By the time Smith and Dupont arrived at Government House to see Gibbs, Whitehall had instructed the Governor to formally dismiss Smith and his ministers for treason. Gibbs complied without hesitation. Smith and his ministers ignored this, holding that under the new 1965 constitution Gibbs "no longer ha[d] any executive powers in Rhodesia", and his reserve power to sack them no longer existed. The Rhodesian government hoped that Gibbs might obligingly resign in light of his impotent situation, but he did not; following orders from London, he remained at his post at Government House. Gibbs told the Rhodesian military's senior officers, some of whom were troubled by the perceived choice between Queen and country, to remain at their posts to maintain law and order. Wilson briefly flirted with the idea of sending Lord Mountbatten to Rhodesia to support Gibbs as a direct representative of the Queen, but this was dropped after Gibbs asked for somebody "higher up" in the royal family instead. "Not likely", Wilson retorted.


text: The Rhodesian government accompanied UDI with emergency measures that it said were intended to prevent alarm, unrest and the flight of people and capital. Press censorship and petrol rationing were imposed, import licences were cancelled and emigration allowances were cut to £100. News of UDI was generally received calmly by the local citizenry, apart from some isolated incidents of passing cars being stoned in the black townships outside Bulawayo. A few expected dissenters were arrested, most prominently Leo Baron, Nkomo's lawyer, whose links with black Rhodesians and communists were seen by authorities as "subversive". Baron, the younger brother of the scientist Jacob Bronowski, was arrested nine minutes after UDI was made.


text: Welensky, who had opposed UDI, stated that he felt it was nevertheless "the duty of every responsible Rhodesian to support the revolutionary government" as he believed the only alternative was a descent into anarchy. João de Freitas Cruz, the Portuguese consul-general in Salisbury, reacted to the news with wild excitement; visiting the Smith residence later in the day, he declared "Only Rhodesians could do this!" A statement from ZAPU's Jason Moyo, who was in London at the time, denounced UDI as an act of "treason and rebellion" and asserted that "the lives particularly of four million unarmed Africans are in jeopardy". Davis M'Gabe of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) said that "For all those who cherish freedom and a meaningful life, UDI has set a collision course which cannot be altered. [It has] marked the turning point of the struggle for freedom ... from a constitutional and political one to primarily a military struggle." Most major Christian denominational leaders in the country publicly rejected UDI and the assertion that it defended Christianity, with the exception of the local Dutch Reformed Church, which stated that it was apolitical and thereafter refrained from comment.


text: A week after UDI, Smith's government announced that Dupont, the Deputy Prime Minister, had resigned from the Cabinet to accept the post of Officer Administering the Government created by the 1965 constitution. Attempting to assert his claimed prerogatives as Her Majesty's Rhodesian Prime Minister, Smith advised the Queen by letter to appoint Dupont as Governor-General to supersede Gibbs. The letter was ignored, with Buckingham Palace characterising Smith's request as "purported advice". Whitehall maintained that Gibbs was the Queen's only legitimate representative in what it still reckoned as the colony of Southern Rhodesia–and hence, the only lawful authority in the area. Dupont nevertheless effectively replaced the Governor. The Smith administration assigned him the Governor's official residence at Government House, but no attempt was made to forcibly remove Gibbs and his entourage; the post-UDI government stated that the Officer Administering the Government would live at Governor's Lodge instead "until Government House, at present temporarily occupied by Sir Humphrey Gibbs in a private capacity, becomes available".


text: The Speaker of the Rhodesian parliament, A R W Stumbles, reconvened the Legislative Assembly on 25 November, resolving that if he did not there would be chaos. He feared that Gibbs might dramatically walk into the chamber in an attempt to stop the proceedings, but Gibbs did no such thing. The parliamentary opposition opened the meeting by asking whether the assembly was legal. Ahrn Palley, the lone white opposition MP, announced that as he saw it, "certain Honourable Members in collusion have torn up the constitution under which this House meets. The proceedings have no legal validity whatsoever". Stumbles overruled this objection and two more interruptions from Palley, and suggested that any members with reservations might leave. Palley continued his loud protests until he was forcibly ejected by the Sergeant-at-Arms, shouting "This is an illegal assembly! God save the Queen!" Gondo and eight other opposition MPs followed Palley out; all ten of them rejoined the Legislative Assembly in February 1966.


text: Gibbs received threatening letters from the Rhodesian public, and on 26 November 1965 Smith's government cut off the telephones at Government House, and removed the ceremonial guard, the official cars "and even the typewriters", Wood records. Gibbs nevertheless refused to step down or to leave Government House, issuing a statement that he would remain there "as the lawful Governor of Rhodesia until such time as constitutional government is restored, which I hope will be soon." He stayed at his post, ignored by the post-UDI government, until the declaration of a republic in 1970.


text: Wilson was astonished by Smith's actions, and found the timing of the declaration to coincide with the Armistice Day silence deeply insulting. Describing Salisbury as "hell-bent on illegal self-destroying", the British Prime Minister, supported in the Commons by the Liberals and most Conservatives, called on Rhodesians to ignore the post-UDI government. Within hours of UDI, the UN General Assembly passed a condemnatory resolution, 107–2—South Africa and Portugal voted against, and France abstained—decrying Rhodesia's actions and calling on Britain to end "the rebellion by the unlawful authorities in Salisbury". The UN Security Council the next day adopted Resolution 216, which denounced the declaration of independence as illegal and racist, and called on all states to refuse recognition and assistance to the Rhodesian government. Security Council Resolution 217, following on 20 November, condemned UDI as an illegitimate "usurpation of power by a racist settler minority", and called on nations neither to recognise what it deemed "this illegal authority" nor to entertain diplomatic or economic relations with it. Both of these measures were adopted by ten votes to none with France abstaining.


text: Rhodesian nationalists and their overseas supporters, prominently the OAU, clamoured for Britain to remove Smith's government by force. The UN Committee on Independence also strongly advised military intervention. The British government dismissed this option because of various logistical issues, the risk of provoking a Rhodesian attack on Zambia and the psychological problems that were likely to accompany any confrontation between British and Rhodesian troops in what Smith said would be a "fratricidal war". British Foreign Secretary Michael Stewart stated that the United Kingdom thought that Rhodesian forces were well-equipped, well-trained and highly motivated and that an invasion would lead to "a medium sized war of uncertain duration". Wilson instead resolved to end the Rhodesian rebellion through economic sanctions; these principally comprised the expulsion of Rhodesia from the Sterling area, a ban on the import of Rhodesian sugar, tobacco, chrome and other goods and an oil boycott of Rhodesia. When the Rhodesians continued to receive oil, Wilson attempted to directly cut off their main supply lines, namely the Portuguese Mozambican ports at Beira and Lourenço Marques, by posting a Royal Navy squadron to the Mozambique Channel in March 1966. This blockade, the Beira Patrol, was endorsed the following month by UN Security Council Resolution 221. The United Nations proceeded to institute the first mandatory trade sanctions in its history with Security Council Resolutions 232 (December 1966) and 253 (April 1968), which required member states to cease all trade and economic links with Rhodesia.


text: Wilson predicted in January 1966 that the various boycotts would force Smith to give in "within a matter of weeks rather than months", but the British and UN sanctions had little effect on Rhodesia, largely because South Africa and Portugal went on trading with the breakaway colony, providing it with oil and other commodities. Clandestine "sanction-busting" trade with other nations also continued, initially at a reduced level and the diminished presence of foreign competitors helped domestic industries to slowly mature and expand. Rhodesia thus avoided the economic collapse predicted by Wilson and gradually became more self-sufficient. The Rhodesian government set up a string of front holding companies in Switzerland, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein to help keep trade open with some success; goods that had been imported from Britain were replaced by Japanese, French and West German equivalents. Even many OAU states, while bombarding Rhodesia with vitriol, continued importing Rhodesian food and other products. The United States created a formal exception in its embargo with the Byrd Amendment of 1971, under which the US replaced its import of chrome from the Soviet Union with Rhodesian chrome ore. This breach of the UN sanctions, passed by the US Congress on the back of anti-communist Cold War considerations, was warmly welcomed by several white Southerners in Congress; it aided the Rhodesian economy until 1977, when the new president, Jimmy Carter, successfully pushed Congress to repeal it.


text: Official diplomatic recognition by other countries was key for Rhodesia as it was the only way it could regain the international legitimacy it had lost through UDI. Recognition by the UK itself through a bilateral settlement would be the "first prize", in Smith's words, as it would end sanctions and constitutional ambiguity and make foreign acceptance, at least in the West, far more likely. Considering their country a potentially important player in the Cold War as a "bastion against communism" in southern Africa, the RF posited that some Western countries might recognise UDI even without a prior Anglo-Rhodesian rapprochement. Specifically, it expected diplomatic recognition from South Africa and Portugal, and thought that France might recognise Rhodesia to annoy Britain and create a precedent for an independent Quebec. But although South Africa and Portugal gave economic, military and limited political support to the post-UDI government (as did France and other nations, to a lesser extent), neither they nor any other country ever recognised Rhodesia as a "de jure" independent state. Rhodesia's unsuccessful attempts to win Western support and recognition included offers to the US government in 1966 and 1967, ignored by Lyndon B Johnson's administration, to provide Rhodesian troops to fight alongside the Americans and other anti-communist forces in Vietnam.


text: Britain withdrew most of its High Commission staff from Salisbury in the days following UDI, leaving a small skeleton staff to man a "residual mission" intended to help Gibbs keep the British government informed of local happenings. Several countries followed Britain's lead and closed their consulates in Salisbury, with one prominent exception to this being the United States, which retained its consulate-general in post-UDI Rhodesia, relabelling it a "US Contacts Office" to circumvent the problem of diplomatic recognition. South Africa and Portugal maintained "Accredited Diplomatic Representative" offices in Salisbury, which were embassies in all but name, while Rhodesia kept its pre-UDI overseas missions in Pretoria, Lisbon and Lourenço Marques. Unofficial representative offices of the Rhodesian government also existed in the US, Japan and West Germany, while a citizen of Belgium was employed to represent Rhodesian interests there. The Rhodesian High Commission in London, located at Rhodesia House on the Strand, remained under the control of the post-UDI government and effectively became its representative office in the UK. Like the South African Embassy on Trafalgar Square, Rhodesia House became a regular target for political demonstrations. These continued even after Britain forced the office to close in 1969.


text: Because UDI claimed to make Rhodesia independent under the Queen as an effective dominion, many countries justified their retention of missions in Rhodesia concurrently with their non-recognition of the state by pointing out that the envoys' accreditation was to the Queen and not to Smith's government "per se". But Rhodesia moved away from its original line of independence as a constitutional monarchy and towards republicanism during the late 1960s, hoping to end ambiguity regarding its claimed constitutional status and elicit official foreign recognition. In March 1970, after the electorate had voted "yes" in a referendum the previous year both to a new constitution and to the abandoning of symbolic ties to the Queen, Smith's government declared Rhodesia a republic. Far from prompting recognition, this led all countries apart from Portugal and South Africa to withdraw their consulates and missions, as the justification of royal accreditation could no longer be used. After Portugal's Carnation Revolution in 1974, the Rhodesian mission in Lisbon was closed in May 1975, with its counterpart in Lourenço Marques following a month later on Mozambican independence. Portugal also withdrew its own remaining officials from Rhodesia, leaving South Africa as the only country with links to Salisbury. Rhodesia's diplomatic activities were thereafter greatly diminished.


text: The Rhodesian High Court's nine Appellate and General Division judges initially neither rejected UDI nor openly supported it. The Chief Justice Sir Hugh Beadle, of the Appellate Division, announced simply that the judges would go on carrying out their duties "according to the law". This originally noncommittal stance evolved over time, largely pivoting around legal cases argued at the High Court in Salisbury between 1966 and 1968. The first of these, "Madzimbamuto v. Lardner-Burke N. O. and Others", concerned Daniel Madzimbamuto, a black Rhodesian who was detained without trial by the Rhodesian government on 6 November 1965, the day after the declaration of a state of emergency and five days before UDI, on the grounds that he might pose a danger to the public. Desmond Lardner-Burke, the Rhodesian Minister of Justice and Law and Order, prolonged the state of emergency in February 1966, prompting Madzimbamuto's wife to appeal for his release, arguing that since the United Kingdom had declared UDI illegal and outlawed the Rhodesian government with the Southern Rhodesia Act 1965, the state of emergency (and, by extension, Madzimbamuto's imprisonment) had no legal basis.


text: The General Division of the Rhodesian High Court ruled on 9 September 1966 that legal sovereignty lay with the British government, but that to "avoid chaos and a vacuum in the law" the Rhodesian government should be considered to be in control of law and order to the same extent as before UDI. In February 1968, ruling on Madzimbamuto's appeal, Beadle concluded that the Smith administration would be recognised by the local judiciary as the "de facto" government by virtue of its "effective control over the state's territory", but that "de jure" recognition would be withheld as this was not "firmly established". Madzimbamuto applied for the right to appeal to the British Privy Council; the Rhodesian Appellate Division promptly ruled that he had no right to do so, but the Privy Council considered his case anyway.


text: In late February 1968, considering the fate of James Dhlamini, Victor Mlambo and Duly Shadreck, three black Rhodesians convicted of murder and terrorist offences before UDI, Beadle ruled that Salisbury retained its pre-UDI powers regarding executions and could carry out death sentences. Whitehall announced on 1 March that at the request of the UK government, the Queen had exercised the royal prerogative of mercy and commuted the three death sentences to life imprisonment. Dhlamini and the others applied for a permanent stay of execution on this basis. At the hearing for Dhlamini and Mlambo on 4 March 1968, Beadle argued that he saw the statement from London as a decision by the UK government and not the Queen herself, and that in any case the 1961 constitution had transferred the prerogative of mercy from Britain to the Rhodesian Executive Council. "The present government is the fully "de facto" government and as such is the only power that can exercise the prerogative", he concluded. "It would be strange indeed if the United Kingdom government, exercising no internal power in Rhodesia, were given the right to exercise the prerogative of clemency." The Judge President Sir Vincent Quenet and Justice Hector Macdonald agreed, and the application was dismissed. Justice John Fieldsend of the High Court's General Division resigned in protest, writing to Gibbs that he no longer believed the High Court to be defending the rights of Rhodesian citizens. Dhlamini, Mlambo and Shadreck were hanged on 6 March.


text: On 23 July 1968, the Privy Council in London ruled in Madzimbamuto's favour, deciding that orders for detention made by the Rhodesian government were invalid regardless of whether the 1961 or 1965 constitution was considered effective. It declared the latter, "revolutionary" constitution illegal, and ruled that the former was overridden by the Southern Rhodesia Act 1965, which had effectively outlawed the Rhodesian legislative, administrative and legal authorities in British law. Lord Reid, delivering the majority opinion (Lord Pearce dissented), argued that the "usurper" government, though the effective master of Rhodesia, could not be considered lawful as the UK government was still attempting to regain control and it was impossible to say whether or not it would succeed. He ruled that only Whitehall could determine what constituted the maintenance of "law and order" in Rhodesia, and that the Rhodesian emergency measures were unlawful as they had been formalised by the Officer Administering the Government, a post-UDI figure who was, in British eyes, unconstitutional. Reid concluded that Madzimbamuto was illegally detained. Harry Davies, one of the Rhodesian judges, announced on 8 August that the Rhodesian courts would not consider this ruling binding as they no longer accepted the Privy Council as part of the Rhodesian judicial hierarchy. Justice J R Dendy Young resigned in protest at Davies' ruling on 12 August and four days later was sworn in as Chief Justice of Botswana.


text: The Rhodesian High Court granted full "de jure" recognition to the post-UDI government on 13 September 1968, while rejecting the appeals of 32 black Rhodesians who had been a month earlier convicted of terrorist offences and sentenced to death. Beadle declared that while he believed the Rhodesian judiciary should respect rulings of the Privy Council "so far as possible", the judgement of 23 July had made it legally impossible for Rhodesian judges to continue under the 1961 constitution. He asserted that the court therefore faced a choice between the 1965 constitution and a legal vacuum, the latter of which he felt he could not endorse. Referring to the Privy Council's decision that the UK might yet remove the post-UDI government, he said that "on the facts as they exist today, the only prediction which this court can make is that sanctions will not succeed in overthrowing the present government ... and that there are no other factors which might succeed in doing so".


text: Macdonald, a member of Beadle's ruling panel, argued that since UDI, the British government had acted unconstitutionally and illegally regarding Rhodesia by involving the United Nations in what should have been legally considered a domestic problem, and had concurrently abdicated its right to the allegiance of the Rhodesian people by waging economic war against the country and encouraging other nations to do the same. To support this argument, Macdonald referred to the assertion by the 17th-century Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius that "the purpose of governing and the purpose of destroying cannot subsist together". Since Britain was in a state of economic war against Rhodesia, the court concluded, it could not at the same time be regarded as governing it. UDI, the associated 1965 constitution and the government were thereafter considered "de jure" by the Rhodesian legal system.


text: The British Commonwealth Secretary, George Thomson, promptly accused the Rhodesian judges of breaching "the fundamental laws of the land", while Gibbs announced that since his position as Governor existed under the 1961 constitution, which allowed appeals to the Privy Council, he could only reject the Rhodesian court ruling. The Rhodesian judges continued regardless. Their recognition of the post-UDI order carried over to the 1969 republican constitution, adopted in 1970.


text: Vestiges of British ties were removed piecemeal by the government over the decade following UDI, and replaced with symbols and terminology intended to be more uniquely Rhodesian. A silver "Liberty Bell", based on the bell of the same name in Philadelphia, was cast during 1966 and rung by the Prime Minister each year on Independence Day (the anniversary of UDI), the number of chimes signifying the number of years since the declaration of independence. The Union Jack and Rhodesia's Commonwealth-style national flag—a defaced Sky Blue Ensign with the Union Jack in the canton—continued to fly over government buildings, military bases and other official locations until 11 November 1968, the third anniversary of UDI, when they were superseded by a new national flag: a green-white-green vertical triband, charged centrally with the Rhodesian coat of arms. The Union Jack continued to be ceremonially raised at Cecil Square in Salisbury on 12 September each year as part of the Pioneers' Day holiday, which marked the anniversary of the establishment of Salisbury (and, by extension, Rhodesia) in 1890.


text: Since Elizabeth II was still the Rhodesian head of state in the eyes of Smith's administration until 1970, "God Save the Queen" remained the Rhodesian national anthem, and continued to accompany official occasions such as the opening of the Rhodesian parliament. This was intended to demonstrate Rhodesia's continued loyalty to the Queen, but the use of the unmistakably British song at Rhodesian state occasions soon seemed "fairly ironic", as "The Times" put it. Salisbury started looking for a replacement anthem around the same time as its introduction of the new flag, and in 1974, after four years without an anthem ("God Save the Queen" was formally dropped in 1970), republican Rhodesia adopted "Rise, O Voices of Rhodesia", an anthem coupling original lyrics with the tune of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy". The country's head of state under the republican constitution was the President of Rhodesia, the first of whom was Dupont.


text: State press censorship, which had been introduced on UDI, was lifted in early April 1968. Decimalisation occurred on 17 February 1970, two weeks before Rhodesia's reconstitution as a republic, with the new Rhodesian dollar replacing the pound at a rate of two dollars to each pound. Following the republic's formal declaration the next month, the Rhodesian military removed nomenclatural and symbolic references to the Crown—the Royal Rhodesian Air Force and Royal Rhodesia Regiment dropped their "Royal" prefixes, new branch and regimental flags were designed, and the St Edward's Crown surmounting many regimental emblems was expunged in favour of the "Lion and Tusk", a motif from the coat of arms of the British South Africa Company that had been used in Rhodesian military symbolism since the 1890s. The air force's new roundel was a green ring with the lion and tusk on a white centre. Later that year, a system of new Rhodesian honours and decorations was created to replace the old British honours. Rhodesia's police force, the British South Africa Police, was not renamed.


text: Wilson told the British House of Commons in January 1966 that he would not enter any kind of dialogue with the post-UDI Rhodesian "illegal regime" until it gave up its claim of independence, but by mid-1966 British and Rhodesian civil servants were holding "talks about talks" in London and Salisbury. By November that year, Wilson had agreed to negotiate personally with Smith. The two Prime Ministers unsuccessfully attempted to settle aboard HMS "Tiger" in December 1966 and HMS "Fearless" in October 1968. After the Conservatives returned to power in Britain in 1970, provisional agreement was reached in November 1971 between the Rhodesian government and a British team headed by Douglas-Home (who was Foreign Secretary under Prime Minister Edward Heath), and in early 1972 a Royal Commission chaired by Lord Pearce travelled to Rhodesia to investigate how acceptable the proposals were to majority opinion. After extensive consultation, the commission reported that while whites, coloureds and Asians were largely in favour of the presented terms, most blacks rejected them. The deal was therefore shelved by the British government.


text: The Rhodesian Bush War, a guerrilla conflict pitting the Rhodesian Security Forces against the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) and the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA), the respective armed wings of ZANU and ZAPU, began in earnest in December 1972, when ZANLA attacked Altena and Whistlefield Farms in north-eastern Rhodesia. The 1974 Carnation Revolution in Portugal, which over the next year replaced Portuguese support for Smith with an independent, Marxist–Leninist Mozambique on Rhodesia's eastern frontier, greatly swung the war's momentum in favour of the nationalists (particularly ZANU, which was allied with Mozambique's governing FRELIMO party), and caused the sanctions on Rhodesia to finally begin having a noticeable effect. Diplomatic isolation, the sanctions, guerrilla activities and pressure from South Africa to find a settlement led the Rhodesian government to hold talks with the various black Rhodesian factions. Abortive conferences were held at Victoria Falls (in 1975) and Geneva (1976). Despite ideological and tribal rifts, ZANU and ZAPU nominally united as the "Patriotic Front" (PF) in late 1976 in a successful attempt to augment overseas support for the black Rhodesian cause.


text: By the mid-1970s, it was apparent that white minority rule could not continue forever. Even Vorster realized that white rule in a country where blacks outnumbered whites 22:1 was not a realistic option. Smith, who was decisively re-elected three times during the 1970s, eventually came to this conclusion as well. He announced his acceptance in principle of one man, one vote during Henry Kissinger's Anglo-American initiative in September 1976, and in March 1978 concluded the Internal Settlement with non-militant nationalist groups headed by Bishop Abel Muzorewa, the Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole and Chief Jeremiah Chirau. This settlement, boycotted by the PF and rejected internationally, led to multiracial elections and Rhodesia's reconstitution under majority rule as Zimbabwe Rhodesia in June 1979. Muzorewa, the electoral victor, took office as the country's first black Prime Minister at the head of a coalition Cabinet comprising 12 blacks and five whites, including Smith as minister without portfolio. Dismissing Muzorewa as a "neocolonial puppet", ZANLA and ZIPRA continued their armed struggle until December 1979, when Whitehall, Salisbury and the Patriotic Front settled at Lancaster House. Muzorewa's government revoked UDI, thereby ending the country's claim to be independent after 14 years, and dissolved itself. The UK suspended the constitution and vested full executive and legislative powers in a new Governor, Lord Soames, who oversaw a ceasefire and fresh elections during February and March 1980. These were won by ZANU, whose leader Robert Mugabe became Prime Minister when the UK granted independence to Zimbabwe as a republic within the Commonwealth in April 1980. African nationalist politicians continued to cite their opposition to the UDI as a means of legitimising their rule of Zimbabwe into the 21st century. Since it was issued, the UDI has been recounted in scholarly literature, autobiographies of those involved in its creation, and works of fiction.


text: Lowry, Donal (2020), "The Queen of Rhodesia Versus the Queen of the United Kingdom: Conflicts of Allegiance in Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence", in Kumarasingham, H.(ed.), Viceregalism: The Crown as Head of State in the Postwar Commonwealth. London: Palgrave-Macmillan. ISBN 978-3-030-46283-3_8


title: Say I Love You (manga)

text: Quiet and unassuming Mei Tachibana has spent her high school years without making friends or getting a boyfriend. A childhood incident in which her friends turned out to be toxic and shallow left her scared of disappointment, leading her to be cautious around people - too cautious. She encounters a popular boy named Yamato Kurosawa, who becomes interested in her, and it is through their tentative friendship and blossoming relationship that Mei ultimately begins to branch out and befriend others.


title: Say I Love You (manga)

text: The manga is both written and illustrated by Kanae Hazuki and began serialization in Japan in Kodansha's "Dessert" magazine. It was later obtained by Kodansha USA for publishing in North America starting in April 2014. The sixth manga volume was released in two versions, a regular edition and a special edition with the latter being bundled with a special CD. The eleventh manga volume was also released in both regular and limited editions with the latter being bundled with an original video animation DVD. Eighteen tankōbon volumes have been released. The manga ended serialization on July 24, 2017.


title: Say I Love You (manga)

text: An anime adaptation by Zexcs began premiered on Tokyo MX October 6, 2012. The series later aired on tvk, BS11 and AT-X. It was later licensed by Sentai Filmworks for release in North America. The opening song is "Friendship" by Ritsuko Okazaki and the ending theme is "Slow Dance" by Suneohair.


title: Say I Love You (manga)

text: The wraparound jacket band of the 11th volume of the manga announced in 2013 that a live action film was greenlit for release in 2014. The film was both directed and written by Asako Hyuga. Haruna Kawaguchi and Sota Fukushi were cast as Mei Tachibana and Yamato Kurosawa respectively. Additional cast members include Tomohiro Ichikawa as Kai Takemura, Rika Adachi as Aiko Mutō, Tasuku Nagase as Kenji Nakanishi, Rima Nishizaki as Asami Oikawa, Ryōsuke Yamamoto as Masashi Tachikawa, and Arisa Yagi as Megumi Kitagawa. Asako Hyuga is directing and writing the film. The film was released in Japan on July 12, 2014. Its main theme song is "Happily" by One Direction.


title: Say I Love You (manga)

text: The manga has sold over 5.3 million copies as of July 2014. The film earned () at the Japanese box office.


title: 100 Pipers

text: 100 Pipers is a brand of blended Scotch whisky with smoked notes that is produced by Pernod Ricard. The company says it is the "seventh-largest blended Scotch worldwide", the "No. 2 standard whisky in Asia", and the "No. 1 standard whisky" in Thailand. In addition to Thailand, it is also distributed in India, Spain, and South America. 100 Pipers is a blend of between 25 and 30 source whiskies. Much of it comes from the Allt a'Bhainne distillery, which is also owned by Pernod Ricard and does not have its own bottling facilities. 100 Pipers is bottled in Scotland and India.


title: 100 Pipers

text: The brand owes its name and Celtic imagery to the Scottish tradition of bagpipers leading soldiers into battle. The "100 Pipers" name in particular comes from the ballad of "The Hundred Pipers", which tells of the heroic Bonnie Prince Charlie's (1720–1788) 1745 Jacobite uprising led by a troop of 100 bagpipers.


title: 100 Pipers

text: The website RankingtheBrands.com rated the brand value of 100 Pipers 75th in 2011 and 81st in 2014 among 10,000 spirit brands worldwide.


title: 100 Pipers

text: 100 Pipers is one of the best-selling whiskies in Thailand. A limited-edition "Night Bottle" for 100 Pipers was released in Thailand in 2015 with a fashion show-themed silicone wrap accompanying the bottle design.


title: Brandon Barash

text: Brandon Joseph Barash (born October 4, 1979) is an American actor known for playing the role of Johnny Zacchara on the ABC Daytime soap opera "General Hospital".


title: Brandon Barash

text: From 2002 to 2004, Barash played Jamie, Paris Geller's boyfriend, in multiple episodes of The WB drama series "Gilmore Girls".


title: Brandon Barash

text: Barash first appeared in the contract role of Johnny Zacchara on the ABC soap opera "General Hospital" in September 2007, and left in March 2013. He returned for several short stints from 2014 to 2016.


title: Brandon Barash

text: In 2015, Barash played "Melrose Place" actor Thomas Calabro in the Lifetime TV film "The Unauthorized Melrose Place Story". He appeared in the recurring role of Detective Robby Oderno in multiple episodes of the TNT police procedural "Major Crimes" from 2014 to 2016. In 2017, Barash played Ernest Hemingway in the episode "The Lost Generation" of the NBC time travel TV series "Timeless". In March 2019, Barash joined the cast of "Days of Our Lives", replacing Tyler Christopher in the role of Stefan DiMera. He also played Jake Lambert on the soap.


title: Brandon Barash

text: Barash has also played in the rock group "Port Chuck" along with his former "General Hospital" co-stars Steve Burton, Scott Reeves, and Bradford Anderson.


title: Brandon Barash

text: Barash was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and is the son of Jerry L. Barash, President and CEO of Sysco Food Services of Ventura and his first wife Susan Gale. He has one brother, Jordan B. Barash, and one younger half-sister, Alison L. Barash. His family is Jewish. Barash has lived in Missouri, Texas, and California. He graduated from Memorial High School in Houston, Texas in 1998.


title: Brandon Barash

text: In August 2013, Barash and his former "General Hospital" co-star Kirsten Storms told "People" that they had secretly wed in June, and were expecting their first child, a girl, in January 2014. In January 2014, Barash confirmed on Twitter that Storms had given birth to a baby girl. In April 2016, Barash and Storms announced that they had filed for divorce after more than 2 and a half years of marriage, citing irreconcilable differences and saying the separation is amicable.


title: Supercavitation

text: Supercavitation is the use of a cavitation bubble to reduce skin friction drag on a submerged object and enable high speeds. Applications include torpedoes and propellers, but in theory, the technique could be extended to an entire underwater vessel.


title: Supercavitation

text: Cavitation is the formation of vapour bubbles in liquid caused by flow around an object. Bubbles form when water accelerates around sharp corners and the pressure drops below the vapour pressure. Pressure increases upon deceleration, and the water generally reabsorbs the vapour; however, vapour bubbles can implode and apply small concentrated impulses that may damage surfaces like ship propellers and pump impellers.


title: Supercavitation

text: The potential for vapour bubbles to form in a liquid is given by the nondimensional cavitation number. It equals local pressure minus vapour pressure, divided by dynamic pressure. At increasing depths (or pressures in piping), the potential for cavitation is lower because the difference between local pressure and vapour pressure is greater.


title: Supercavitation

text: A supercavitating object is a high-speed submerged object that is designed to initiate a cavitation bubble at its nose. The bubble extends (either naturally or augmented with internally generated gas) past the aft end of the object and prevents contact between the sides of the object and the liquid. This separation substantially reduces the skin friction drag on the supercavitating object.


title: Supercavitation

text: A key feature of the supercavitating object is the nose, which typically has a sharp edge around its perimeter to form the cavitation bubble. The nose may be articulated and shaped as a flat disk or cone. The shape of the supercavitating object is generally slender so the cavitation bubble encompasses the object. If the bubble is not long enough to encompass the object, especially at slower speeds, the bubble can be enlarged and extended by injecting high-pressure gas near the object's nose.


title: Supercavitation

text: The very high speed required for supercavitation can be temporarily reached by underwater-fired projectiles and projectiles entering water. For sustained supercavitation, rocket propulsion is used, and the high-pressure rocket gas can be routed to the nose to enhance the cavitation bubble. In principle, supercavitating objects can be maneuvered using various methods, including the following:


title: Supercavitation

text: The Russian Navy developed the VA-111 Shkval supercavitation torpedo, which uses rocket propulsion and exceeds the speed of conventional torpedoes by at least a factor of five. NII-24 began development in 1960 under the code name "Шквал" (Squall). The VA-111 Shkval has been in service (exclusively in the Russian Navy) since 1977 with mass production starting in 1978. Several models were developed, with the most successful, the M-5, completed by 1972. From 1972 to 1977, over 300 test launches were conducted (95% of them on Issyk Kul lake).


title: Supercavitation

text: In 2006, German weapons manufacturer Diehl BGT Defence announced their "own" supercavitating torpedo, the Barracuda, now officially named "" (). According to Diehl, it reaches speeds greater than .


title: Supercavitation

text: In 1994, the United States Navy began development of the Rapid Airborne Mine Clearance System (RAMICS), a sea mine clearance system invented by C Tech Defense Corporation. The system is based on a supercavitating projectile stable in both air and water. RAMICS projectiles have been produced in diameters of , , and . The projectile's terminal ballistic design enables the explosive destruction of sea mines as deep as with a single round. In 2000 at Aberdeen Proving Ground, RAMICS projectiles fired from a hovering Sea Cobra gunship successfully destroyed a range of live underwater mines. As of March 2009, Northrop Grumman completed the initial phase of RAMICS testing for introduction into the fleet.


title: Supercavitation

text: Iran claimed to have successfully tested its first supercavitation torpedo, the Hoot (Whale), on 2–3 April 2006. Some sources have speculated it is based on the Russian VA-111 Shkval supercavitation torpedo, which travels at the same speed. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov denied supplying Iran with the technology.


title: Supercavitation

text: In 2004, DARPA announced the Underwater Express program, a research and evaluation program to demonstrate the use of supercavitation for a high-speed underwater craft application. The US Navy's ultimate goal is a new class of underwater craft for littoral missions that can transport small groups of navy personnel or specialized military cargo at speeds up to 100 knots. DARPA awarded contracts to Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics Electric Boat in late 2006. In 2009, DARPA announced progress on a new class of submarine:


title: Supercavitation

text: A prototype ship named the "Ghost", uses supercavitation to propel itself atop two struts with sharpened edges. It was designed for stealth operations by Gregory Sancoff of Juliet Marine Systems. The vessel rides smoothly in choppy water and has reached speeds of 29 knots.


title: Supercavitation

text: The Chinese Navy and US Navy are reportedly working on their own supercavitating submarines using technical information obtained on the Russian VA-111 Shkval supercavitation torpedo.


title: Supercavitation

text: A supercavitating propeller uses supercavitation to reduce water skin friction and increase propeller speed. The design is used in military applications, high-performance racing boats, and model racing boats. It operates fully submerged with wedge-shaped blades to force cavitation on the entire forward face, starting at the leading edge. Since the cavity collapses well behind the blade, the supercavitating propeller avoids spalling damage caused by cavitation, which is a problem with conventional propellers.


title: Supercavitation

text: Supercavitating ammunition is used with German (Heckler & Koch P11) and Russian underwater firearms, and other similar weapons.


title: Supercavitation

text: The "Kursk" submarine disaster was initially thought to have been caused by a faulty Shkval supercavitating torpedo, though later evidence points to a faulty 65-76 torpedo.


title: Ritesh Shah

text: Ritesh Shah is an Indian screenwriter who works in Hindi films. He has written the screenplay and dialogues for films like "Kahaani" (2012), "Pink" (2016), "Airlift" (2017) and "Raid" (2018). He won the Filmfare award, Star Screen Award and Zee Cine Award in the Best Dialogue category for "Pink".


title: Ritesh Shah

text: He did his Bachelors in English Literature from Hindu College (1993-1996) and has done his Masters in Mass Communications from MCRC, Jamia Milia Islamia. He began his career as a playwright with Act One Art Group, New Delhi. His works include the fringe award winner Othello - A play in black and white. Ritesh switched to television in 1999. His television writing credits include Josh, Kashmeer, Krishna Arjun and the award-winning series .


title: Ritesh Shah

text: Ritesh started his career as a playwright in Delhi. He adopted Sławomir Mrożek's political black comedy which pulled the attention of the Indian film industry. One of the actors in the play suggested him to shift the base to Mumbai where Ritesh started writing from the TV serial "Kagaar". His first film as a writer was Sujoy Ghosh's "Home Delivery". Anurag Kashyap recommended him to Vipul Shah for writing the dialogues of 2007 film Namastey London. He has also adopted 2013 film B.A. Pass from a short story "The Raiwaly Aunty" written by Mohan Sikka. He has also done a cameo role in Pink.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: Shaukat Aziz (; born 6 March 1949) is a Pakistani former banker and financier who served as 17th prime minister of Pakistan from 28 August 2004 to 15 November 2007, as well as the finance minister of Pakistan from 6 November 1999 to 15 November 2007. During his childhood he studied at St Patrick's High School, Karachi. Aziz graduated from the Institute of Business Administration in Karachi, and joined the corporate staff of the CitiBank Pakistan in 1969. He served in various countries' governments as CitiBank financier, and became executive vice-president of Citibank in 1999. After accepting a personal request by General Pervez Musharraf, Aziz returned to Pakistan from the United States to assume charge of the Finance Ministry as its finance minister while taking control of the country's economy. In 2004, Aziz was nominated by the Musharraf loyalist government led by Pakistan Muslim League (Q), to the position of prime minister after the resignation of Zafarullah Khan Jamali on 6 June 2004.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: Aziz's macroeconomics policies oversaw political stability and economic progress in Pakistan, subsequently ending the "era of stagflation" in 2001. Intensified privatisation and economic liberalisation programmes were personally initiated by Aziz, privatising state-owned corporations and strengthening the country's economic base, which led to the improvement of the country's growth rate by 6.4% per year. Poverty and inflation rates dropped to 3.5% in the last 3 years, compared to 11–12% in the 1990s. For the first time in Pakistan's history, all goals and revenue collection targets were met in his tenure, and allocation for development increased by about 40%. Moreover, despite a series of internal and external distresses, the economic situation of Pakistan improved significantly and reserves increased to US$10.5 billion on 30 June 2004, compared to US$1.2 billion in October 1999. As prime minister, Aziz oversaw the large-scale expansion of military reforms, police reforms, and significant investment in the country that led to the boom of the automotive industry, energy megaprojects, nuclear industry, and the port industry, and presided over unprecedented GDP growth. Aziz's policy expanded the internet and telecommunication services, and liberalised the private media of Pakistan as his vision to internationalise the image of the country.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: Shaukat Aziz was born in Karachi, Sindh Province of Pakistan on 6 March 1949. He studied at Saint Patrick's School, Karachi and Abbottabad Public School, Abbottabad, Pakistan. His father, S.A. Aziz (sometimes Abdul Aziz) was a radio engineer employed in the state-owned Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) as chief engineer. His father, S.A. Aziz was noted for making singular contributions in the development of Radio Pakistan and was the architect of its external services; for this his father was conferred with state honours by the government of Pakistan in the 1950s. S.A. Aziz was one of the pioneers who nurtured Radio Pakistan in its days of infancy, and chartered the future roadmap for expansion of its network and technological advancement and growth.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: The PBC moved his family to Abbottabad, North West Frontier Province and attended the Abbottabad Public School, and later the family moving back to Karachi. Aziz matriculated and obtained high-school diploma from Saint Patrick's High School and proceeded Government College now GCU In Lahore where he passed his inter-level and ascended to attend the Gordon College of Rawalpindi, Punjab province in 1965. Aziz obtained a BS degree in Economics in 1967 from Gordan College and moved back to Karachi the same year to enroll in a master's programme. Aziz attended the master's programme of the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) in Karachi and obtained MBA in business administration in 1969. While at the IBA, Aziz secured the internship of U.S.-based Citibank, and after his master's degree, Aziz was called to join the executive senior staff of the Citibank, based in the United States.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: Initially, Aziz joined the corporate branch of Citibank Pakistan as its credit officer in 1969. During his career, Aziz subsequently served in various countries including Pakistan, Greece, United States, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Philippines, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Singapore.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: After arriving to assume the charge of corporate assignment in the United States, Aziz settled in New York City and took over the office operations of Citibank at the Empire State Building. Aziz acquired permanent residence status, but did not acquire American citizenship, whilst continuing to upgrade his legal status.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: In the U.S., Aziz held numerous positions in Citibank across several divisions including Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB), Corporate Planning Officer (CPO), Chief Financial Officer of Citicorp and managing director of Citibank Singapore. He has been a board member of Citibank subsidiaries, including Saudi American Bank, Citicorp Islamic Bank, and of several non-profit organizations. Aziz played a pivotal rôle in expanding Citibank branches and corporate directive operations throughout the country and was instrumental in bringing multinational banking industries into Pakistan in the 1990s.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: At Citibank, Aziz served as the corporate director of Asia Pacific global finance operations and had been notable for financing and managing funds on behalf of Citibank and other financial corporations in global stock markets. He was also involved with Citi Private Bank, a subsidiary of Citigroup. Aziz regarded his career in Citigroup as "extremely helpful" in preparing him for the executive public office, in 2006.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: Aziz continued to visit Pakistan, working to expand Citibank's financial services and banking, overseeing the wide expansion of Citigroup's branches and its influence in Pakistan. In the 1990s, he worked closely with the governments of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif to help negotiate economic relief packages and aid to Pakistan, while maintaining diverse relations with Pakistan's Armed Forces who would also visit the United States as part of Sharif's and Benazir Bhutto's state visits.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: By the 1990s, Aziz had established many notable contacts within the United States administration. In a book, "Global Financial Warrior", written by John B. Taylor, Aziz had substantial access to the US Treasury, World Bank and many other world financial institutions. Aziz worked closely with the United States in order to finance U.S. war games and operations. Aziz knew the volumes of secretive methods of transferring funds in and out of South Asia, particularly clandestine financing of nuclear weapons programmes of India and Pakistan at its most, Taylor maintained.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: Shaukat Aziz had been a president of Citi Private Bank in New York before returning to Pakistan in 1999. Shortly, General Pervez Musharraf arrived for a small personal trip to the United States after staging a coup d'état to deposed the people-elected prime minister Navaz Sharif on 12 October 1999.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: On 26 November 1999, while addressing a gathering of influential lobbyists of the Pakistani American community, a political lobbying sub-body of the Association of Pakistani Physicians of North America (APPNA), Musharraf stated that: "Shaukat Aziz has come to Pakistan with forty other financial experts who have offered free service to revive Pakistan's national economy". After a brief session, Musharraf asked Shaukat Aziz to stand up and introduce himself to the audience.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: Aziz reportedly returned with Musharraf in November 1999 and took charge of the Finance ministry as its Finance Minister. Aziz took control of the economy with responsibility for Finance, Economic Affairs, Statistics Division, Planning and Development, and revenue divisions. As Minister of Finance Aziz also headed the Economic Coordination Committee of the Cabinet, the Cabinet Committee on Investment, the executive committee of the National Economic Council, and the Cabinet Committee on Privatization. As Finance minister, all came under the government-ownership while restructuring each mega-corporation to set off to privatisation. During his first days, Aziz worked to control the economy in a difficult and hostile environment with then-President Muhammad Rafiq Tarar who called him "an alien", and many among those who were close to deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto. Other politicians including Fazal-ur-Rehman and Ameen Faheem became hostile towards Aziz and his policies; and harboured grave doubts about him because Aziz was not like a traditional politician in the country, an accredited politician.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: Initially there was a decline in the economy, and Aziz attributes this as "state (Pakistan) unpleasant relations with international financial institutions. There was a ~70% decline in the national economy with the loss of $150 million (1999) to $600 million (2000), which constituted 0.21% of foreign direct investment (FDI) global flow. Aziz took initiatives for FDI offering incentives to foreign investors with his macroeconomic policies, taxation framework and a consistent investment policy.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: After the 11 September attacks in the United States and Pakistan's role in the War on Terror, Aziz travelled to the United States in order to negotiate a relief and U.S. aid to Pakistan. He closely worked with US Secretary of the Treasury on the detail of the devised plan on how to remove the Taliban from Afghanistan, cancellation and debt relief, loans from the World Bank, and direct support from U.S. Aid for national public development. Aziz recommended policies and new plan of economic reforms, including the improved budgetary transparency and spending controls— a plan that was widely accepted by the United States. With the help from United States Department of the Treasury, Aziz thwarted individuals, difficulties and obstacles to achieve success in his economic programmes. In 2002, Aziz worked with U.S. administration to help advise the United States to finance the war in Afghanistan. In the words of John B. Taylor, Aziz suggested that U.S. should call out for a meeting of finance ministers of the G7 member countries, where the illicit funding of money would become a great problem for G7 countries in the future. In April 2002, Aziz chaired a "historical" meeting on behalf of Pakistan and the United States, helping the G7 members to understand how the illicit money was transferred was shared with the finance ministers of G7 members and Pakistan on other side.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: In 2001, Aziz implemented and activated the Privatization Programme (first founded by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in 1991) and opened all state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to private sector. This programme undertook the country into rapid economic growth and extreme level of industrialisation the country had for yet seen since 1972. After the 2002 general elections, Aziz intensified his programme and aggressively implemented economic liberalisation policies in the country. Aziz's financial policies came under surrounding controversies, creating new problems for Prime minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali to counter who was forced to resign the office in his favour. His affordable real estate scheme encouraged common men to afford a house and a vehicle on low investment, but on the other hand, this scheme brought an increase violation of zoning regulations in construction companies. Although, Zafarullah Khan Jamali controlled the inflation at its low level, his deregulation policies of price control caused the oil and sugar prices to skyrocket. His public and liberalisation of economy policy expanded the political role of Supreme Court of Pakistan in a higher level of the government and to target high-level of government corruption independently without government interferences.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: By October 2007, at the end of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz's tenure, Pakistan raised back its Foreign Reserves to $16.4 billion. Pakistan's trade deficit was at $13 billion, exports were $18 billion, revenue generation was $13 billion and attracted foreign investment was $8.4 billion.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: Pakistan's fiscal performance was praised by IMF and World Bank. The World Bank further reiterated that Pakistan's economic growth bolstered international confidence.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: IMF's new South Asia director Mr. George Abed, said he was "very pleased with the record of Pakistan in the past three years of continued macroeconomic and financial stabilisation and we have begun to think of Pakistan as a country of promise and a country of potentially high rate of growth".


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: In 2001, Mr. Aziz was also named "Finance Minister of the Year" by "Euromoney" and "Bankers" magazines.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: While campaigning on 30 July 2004, Aziz survived an assassination attempt in the Attock District of Punjab, Pakistan. The suicide bomb attack was staged in Fateh Jang, a small town to the north of the capital, Islamabad, where Aziz was contesting an election. The attempt was made when Aziz was departing after meeting with constituents. A suicide bomber, who was travelling with the Aziz motorcade, detonated the device next to the car in which Aziz was travelling, killing himself and Aziz's chauffeur, as well as six others.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: Aziz called the incident "tragic," and said it had claimed the lives of innocent people. He added that it had reinforced his resolve to serve Pakistan and the Islamic world. After safely reaching Islamabad, Aziz instigated a probe, while the foreign office contacted its mission in Egypt to try to determine the veracity of an Al Qaeda claim of responsibility. Ten suspected Al-Qaeda perpetrators were arrested in Egypt and later extradited to Pakistan for the crime.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: By 2004, Aziz had become a right hand of general Musharraf, as Musharraf described in . The strong oligarch business class of Pakistan, notably Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, had been impressed by Shaukat Aziz's performance as finance minister. Following the resignation of Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali on 26 June 2004, Hussain nominated Aziz for the office of prime minister and was also a top choice for the candidacy of prime ministerial post by Musharraf.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: However, Aziz was not a member of the National Assembly, although he was a Senator. As required by the constitution, the prime minister had to be a member of the National Assembly. Aziz was highly regarded as a "technocrat" and had gained the trust of the establishment, international institutions and public support. His nomination came after another technocrat-economist, Dr. Manmohan Singh, became the prime minister of India and Aziz was widely seen as compatible with his Indian counterpart.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: Having been described and labelled as an urban gentlemen and smartly dressed, Aziz was tasked with day-to-day running of the federal government and see that policies were more effectively executed while Musharraf handled the military issues. In Pakistan, it was also said that Musharraf blindly trusted Aziz and sometimes, Musharraf's approvals were not needed for the projects that normally required permission. Aziz quietly and more quickly undermined the elements seeking to undermine Musharraf which may have been a factor that Musharraf had blindly trusted Aziz.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: The post was held by Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain while Aziz fulfilled the constitutional requirement of securing a seat in the lower house of parliament. Aziz ran from two constituencies, Tharparkar-I in Sindh, and Attock District. Even after the assassination attempt, Aziz continued campaigning and won from both constituencies. Since he could retain only one seat, he immediately vacated his Tharparkar seat, preferring to represent Attock, where he had won by 76,156 votes to 29,497.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: Aziz was elected prime minister by parliament on 27 August 2004, by a vote of 191 to 151 in the National Assembly of Pakistan, and was sworn in on 28 August 2004. Pakistan Media labelled him as "Short Cut Aziz" because of lack of political background and hardly affiliation to any political party and still managed to land on the prime ministerial office. Whilst, international media labelled him "Urban gentlemen", as he was soft-spoken and greeted his guests with great gesture and manners. He retained his position as Minister of Finance. His government introduced and featured extremely qualified and new faces in the political area of the country, including Hina Rabbani Khar (economic ministry), Hafeez Shaikh (investment ministry), Khurshid Kasuri (Foreign ministry), and Atta ur Rahman (as science adviser). Many of these technocrats ascended to join the successive governments and embark on successful career in the politics thereafter.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: Aziz left office on 16 November 2007, at the end of the parliamentary term and became the first prime minister of Pakistan who left seat after completion of parliamentary term of five years.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: Aziz successfully oversaw the rapid development of the local government system in Pakistan as part of his "Strengthening Decentralisation" program. His domestic initiatives including the decentralisation in the country, and termed the local government system as "more transparent and accountable". Aziz strengthened the policy formats and area of responsibility of National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) after appointing Daniyal Aziz in 2005. Aziz carried out major reforms in Law enforcement agencies, Police forces, and court system in the country. In 2005, Aziz's government installed 6,000 water supply and sanitation filter plants in entire, through the Khushal Pakistan (lit. Prospered Pakistan) programme, a scheme founded by Nawaz Sharif in the 1990s.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: As prime minister, Aziz took hard stance against rivals and took a hardline against his political challengers. Aziz thrashed the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) led by conservative leader Javed Hashmi who was placed in military prison on treason charges, on a support provided by Aziz. His hardline and tough counter active measures forced Pakistan Peoples Party of Benazir Bhutto and Pakistan Muslim League-N of Nawaz Sharif to concede their defeat and took asylum in United Kingdom.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: In 2005, a non-partisan local government elections were decided to be held in entire country, starting first to hold the elections in Karachi, Sindh Province. Subsequently, Aziz supervised and presided the first free and fair local body elections with PML(Q) and its allied parties sweeping the election arena. Controversially, Aziz allocated Rs. 20 million to each district where PML(Q) candidates lost the National Assembly elections in order to secure its voting bank that was lost in 2002. In Sindh and Balochistan Province, Aziz presided the peaceful election held events and personally monitored the success of the local government body programme. Under his first few of years of government, the law and order situation remains under control and prosperity in Balochistan, and presided the completion the first phase of the Gwadar port.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: Problems began to mount with nationalist Akbar Bugti, an ally of Nawaz Sharif. Although, Aziz repeatedly and forcefully denied the knowledge of any military action against Bugti and, as prime minister, Aziz never released any information of any military action in Balochistan. However, Aziz appeared on television screens and stated that "Akbar Bugti died in a military operation during the night of August 25—26, 2008". Aziz was inflicted with the involvement in the killing of Akbar Khan Bugti, although he has denied any involvement in any manner.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: In Islamabad alone, Aziz's government was forced to take military action, codename "Silence" after chairing a meeting with the President. In 2009, Aziz maintained that his government had tried at every level of extreme to resolve the Lal Masjid issue through talks to save lives. In a television interview, Aziz maintained that "We gave them time to leave the mosque and the Imam-e-Kaaba Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais also came to Pakistan on my request in connection with the issue.".


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: One of the widely reported controversy took place in his government was the atomic proliferation scandal of Abdul Qadeer Khan. Aziz remains supportive towards Khan and efficiently took matters of Abdul Qadeer Khan in 2006 from President Musharraf. On 10 September 2006, Aziz sent flowers and personally visited Khan when he was hospitalised and on 12 October 2007, Musharraf made it clear to United States and rest of the world that Khan "won't be handed over" at given any circumstances. On a television speech, Aziz paid a huge tribute to Abdul Qadeer Khan and while commenting on last part of his speech, Aziz stressed it:


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: After assuming the office, Aziz announced a controversial "New 25-year energy plan", aiming to raise Pakistan's dependence on imported oil for power generation to 50% by 2030. His government pushed for the renewable energy, and put efforts to established the solar energy and wind power sector in the country.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: Prime Minister Aziz's "New 25-year energy plan" remains extremely controversial and met great public criticism by media and energy experts. Energy experts rendered Aziz's programme as "bigger disaster" in a view when even oil rich Gulf countries were reducing their share of oil in their power production. Prime Minister Aziz approved the constructional, and approved the developmental work of "CHASNUPP-II" reactor at the Chashma Nuclear Power Plant in Chashma city, Punjab Province of Pakistan. A 325 MW commercial nuclear power plant was built with Chinese assistance at the close vicinity of Chashma nuclear power complex. Aziz termed this project as "milestone" in the history of nuclear technology in Pakistan. In 2007, Aziz approved the constructional development of "KANUPP-II" and the nuclear reprocessing site, the Nuclear Power Fuel Complex in Islamabad. Aziz oversaw to increase the capacity building of the Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority, a governmental nuclear safety authority, to meet the safety requirement of nuclear power plants.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: In 2007, Aziz further diversified his nuclear energy policy, terming it as "criteria based nuclear technology" while continued financing the nuclear power projects. Aziz presided initial construction of major hydroelectric power plants project in Pakistan, such as approving the Diamer-Bhasha Dam. Its foundation was laid by his successor Yousaf Raza Gillani in 2011. In 2004, Aziz directed the Ministry of Water and Power and Planning Commission to prepare an integrated energy plan for the country. Aziz approved the "Vision 2025" programme" of Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) to produce power through water. The programme was intended to be launched with the help of private sector and private funding through the international megaproject. However all projects were cancelled or either put on hold by the upcoming government of Yousaf Raza Gillani due economic distress, lack of capital and investment and continuing economic declines, leading an increasing circular debt.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: Aziz oversaw the successful development of the JF-17 Thunder fighter programme in record time, built with the close cooperation with China. In 2007, Aziz stressed that "Pakistan is not an offensive country and our defence doctrine is based on having minimum credible deterrence to maintain peace and stability in the region.". Aziz also successfully saw the technology transfer and contract development of first combatant frigate, the F-22P "Zulfiquar". In May 2006, Aziz stressed that: "Pakistan's deep military and economic cooperation with China was one not based on "transient interest," but was "higher than Himalayas, deeper than oceans".


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: In August 2006, Aziz visited the People's Republic of China, seeking Chinese cooperation in space technology. China expressed interest in helping Pakistan with developing and launching satellites. In a joint statement of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Aziz emphasised that: "both countries are determined to elevate their friendship and strategic partnership.". A contract was signed with China, Aziz authorized the development of the satellite, "Paksat-IR". Aziz presided over the security, expansion, and modernization of the country's nuclear deterrence programme as part of his defence policy. Aziz oversaw the successful development of the "Shaheen-II" missile program and witnessed its first flight at an undisclosed location in April 2006. After witnessing the test, Aziz maintained that: "We will continue to pursue vigorously our security and energy needs from all sources including nuclear.". On 8 August 2005, Aziz issued directives to tightened the security and control and command of the National Command Authority and ordered strict monitoring of atomic assets and facilities at all levels of command.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: In 2004, Aziz stated and clarified Pakistan's nuclear policy to the world and India in an interview given to the "Times of India":


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: From 2005 and onwards, Aziz's government took major steps against atomic proliferation while also making several decisions to increase the capacity of nuclear deterrence and sufficient use of nuclear energy for the civil sector.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: On foreign fronts, Aziz closely collaborated with Musharraf while working to develop the geostrategy in the region. Aziz took initiatives to strengthen the relations with the United States, European Union, Russia, India, China, and Saudi Arabia. Under his government, relations with the United States were extremely cordial and friendly. His foreign policy strictly pursued and followed a "Balance Foreign Policy (BFP)" programme with an initial goal to keen to forge robust friendly ties with international community, US and European Union (EU).


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: Accompanied by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey, Aziz travelled to Iran in 2006, and privately told Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad he must change course regarding its nuclear program, as the current direction was neither in Iran's nor the region's interest. Aziz urged Ahmadinejad to immediately place a moratorium on uranium enrichment, while on the other hand Erdoğan described the EU-3 proposal, with Russian enhancements, as a very attractive offer for Iran. Both Aziz and Erdoğan condemned Ahmedinejad's statements attacking Israel as completely unacceptable and serving no purpose. Aziz's tenure saw considerable improvements in relations with Japan. After visiting Japan, Aziz welcomed investment in the manufacturing sector and Pakistani-Japanese joint ventures in steel manufacturing as an excellent symbol of cooperation in expanding steel production between the two countries.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: Aziz paid a farewell visit to South Korea to strengthen and enhance relations between the two countries. Aziz cautiously supported South Korea's stance while refraining to criticise North Korea. On a three-day state visit, Aziz and his counterpart Lee Hae Chan signed two agreements on cultural exchange and providing human resource management, and improving trade and cultural ties between South Korea and Pakistan. Aziz strongly allied with the United States in the fight against terrorism, and in a meeting with an American journalist, Aziz maintained that: "Pakistan is now ideally positioned to "work with cooperation rather than confrontation as a force for peace, stability, and prosperity..". During his tenure, relations with the United States strengthened and progressed. In 2006, Aziz quoted: "Pakistan-American relations are based on mutual trust and respect and are long-standing.". During his repeated visits to the United States, Aziz worked and deliberately approached the U.S. administration on building a strategic partnership with the United States, and made efforts to build a "robust-broad-based strategic relationship.". Aziz's economic, domestic, and internal reforms focused on enriching a longer-term sustainable Pakistan-U.S. relationship and contributed immeasurably to both countries' joint struggle against extremism.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: Relations with Israel were considered important by Aziz's government, and supported Musharraf's policy on Israel. At foreign fronts, Aziz maintained a ""Telephone Policy"" on diplomatic engagement with Israel, whilst keeping Saudi Arabia and Turkey in tacit contact. During his tenure, bilateral relations with the United Kingdom were enhanced and reached to a new level after meeting with British prime minister Tony Blair in 2005, and tightened the economic and defence relations with British counterpart Gordon Brown in 2007. Brown thanked Aziz for the successful launching of a $500 million Eurobond, which was oversubscribed four times. After assuming the office of prime minister, Aziz left for China, as his foreign state visit as prime minister in 2004. In 2007, Aziz made his final state visit as prime minister to China to sign a Free Trade Agreement with China, and regarded the country as a "strategic partner" and a "time-tested friend," whilst China regarded the FTA agreement as "a historic development". Aziz built closer economic ties with India while alleviating the territorial conflicts. After meeting with Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh, a confident measuring building process was initiated by Aziz.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: Aziz pushed his foreign policy to Russia, calling Russia a "global super power". In 2006, Aziz invited state-run and private-media of Russia where he repeatedly stressed for the need to enhance cooperation between Pakistan and Russia in the fields of education, science and technology, energy, defence and trade and investment. Finally, in 2007, Russian prime minister Mikhail Fradkov paid a three-day-long visit to Pakistan, becoming the first Russian prime minister and leader to visit the country in 38 years. During this trip, Aziz and Fradkov pledged to boost economic ties and signed two co-operation agreements .


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: Under Shaukat Aziz's government, the country's national economic growth improved at the rate range by 6.4% to 9.0% a year. All revenue collection targets were met on time for the first time in the history of Pakistan, and allocation for development was increased by about 40%. However, this economic success is attributed largely to debt reduction and securing of the billion dollars worth US aid to Pakistan in return for the support in the US-led war on terror. Moreover, despite a series of internal and external distresses, economic situation of Pakistan improved significantly and reserves increased to US$10.7bn on 30 June 2004 as compared to US$1.2bn October 1999. Exchange Rate became stable and predictable; the inflation rate dropped to 3.5% last 3 years as against 11–12% in 1990.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: After taking control of the economy, Aziz aggressively promoted the privatisation, deregulation and economic liberalisation programme and open the large heavy mechanical industries, petroleum companies, electropetroleum and chemical enterprises and state-owned corporations to private sectors. His tenure as finance minister and prime minister, the agriculture production and construction well increased, whilst aggressively and forcefully implementing his policies to liberalise the trade, and eliminated the non-tariff barriers. Under his regime, the maximum bound tariffs were brought down to high as 300% to 25% whilst the applied tariff averages falls in the range of 5% to 10%.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: The GDP growth which was at 3.9% in October 1999, stood between 6.6%—9% and successfully privatised all state-owned corporations and state enterprises before completing his term. However, Aziz's strategy failed deal with underlying problems deeply in country's economy. The global financial crises in 2008 led the sharp drop in the country's economy while an acute electricity shortage in the country revealed the incompetence by the Peoples Party's government, but also the failure of his government to develop the necessary energy infrastructure on time.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: Political economists, however, gave other side of story by arguing that his policies were not aimed at alleviating poverty as he seldom offered relief to the poor sections of the society. Shaukat Aziz is roundly criticized for his policy of downsizing in the public sector and disintegrating the effects of nationalization policies of Benazir Bhutto as early as the 1990s but Aziz defended as he points out that his policies made these institutions viable while they were on the verge of collapse. Political economist dr. S. Akbar Zaidi argues that his policies mastered Pakistan's economy but such indicators are misleading and unsustainable because his policies do not examine or explain the particular, perplexing economy of Pakistan.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: A banker and financier by training and extensive experience in the United States, Aziz's credentials are extremely high and considered one of the successful finance minister of Pakistan. His credential records are similar to those of the successful US treasury secretaries such as Bob Rubin and Nicholas F. Brady who did well under Clinton and Reagan administrations. He understands the rôle of banking, finance, investment and consumer credit in economic growth of a nation. Aziz presided the strong banking sector, unprecedented investment and growth finance sectors in Pakistan to underpin its economy. He strengthened capital availability, an essential and increasingly important economic input, in addition to labour and land improvements. With higher education budget up 15-fold and overall education spending up 36% in two years, he focused on education to improve the availability of skilled labour to fill new jobs.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: Aziz aggressively pushed land development and public and private construction spending to improve infrastructure and facilities to attract greater business investment. The international communities regarded Aziz as a reformer, with Pakistan's structural reforms ranking high amongst emerging economies. Aziz co-chaired the Secretary-General's High Level Panel on the United Nations System-wide Coherence in the areas of development, humanitarian assistance and the environment. Aziz oversaw the success of the privatisation programme in Pakistan and most of the proceeds so far have come from the telecom and banking sectors, around 80% of Pakistan's banking sector was put under the private hands.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: The BBC noted that the privatisation programme, initiated by Nawaz Sharif in 1990, picked up from a jog to a sprint under watchful eyes of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. The prime minister is considered the chief architect of privatisation and is widely respected among foreign investors. In an interview with BBC, Aziz mentioned Pakistan's economic growth as he puts it:


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: In 2008, Aziz participated in the Global Creative Leadership Summit, organised by the Louise Blouin Foundation. As a delegate, he delivered a keynote speech for the panel entitled "Economic Crisis, Economics of Change: Credit, Commodities, and Trade."


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: In spite of supervising and presiding the successful economic growth at an unprecedent level, his privatisation and energy policies remains extremely controversial in public circles. Critics argued that Aziz's privatisation policies and privatised energy sector did not fully tackle with full force in country's economy. Aziz defended as he points out that his policies made these institutions viable while they were on the verge of collapse.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: An unsuccessful attempt to privatise the Pakistan Steel Mills was also thwarted by trade unions and pro-nationalization elements who took the case to Supreme Court of Pakistan in 2006. But Aziz said that his privatisation program produced "the second fastest growing economy in the world."


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: On 30 October 2011, Aziz directed a letter sent from Dubai to the Provincial Police Office to Balochistan High Court stating "he had been mentioned in the FIR registered at the Dera Bugti Police Station on 13 October 2009, which alleged that then president Pervez Musharraf used him as part of Akbar Bugti case in which the latter committed suicide during a military operation.". Aziz maintained that he was informed of "unfortunate event" through the televised media. Aziz later stated in television that Akbar Bugti died in a military operation during the night of 25/26 August 2008.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: On 5 November 2017, Aziz appeared on the Paradise Papers leaks. The leaks claimed that he was linked with the Antarctic Trust, which was set up by Aziz himself. This trust was neither declared by him as prime minister nor as finance minister. Aziz, a former Citibank executive, told the ICIJ he had set the trust up for estate planning purposes and that the funds had come from his employment at Citibank. An internal Appleby document raised concerns about warrants issued for him in connection with the killing of a local leader. Aziz dismissed both the murder charge and the allegations of financial impropriety.


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: Shaukat Aziz currently resides in West London, United Kingdom. He serves on a number of boards and advisory boards including Millennium & Copthorne Hotels plc. and The Blackstone Group. According to Aziz, he has maintained good relations with several members of his government and the members of the Parliament including his former Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri and former railways minister Sheikh Rasheed and his party president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain. In the midst of 2009, in polls performed by various news agencies, Aziz's approval rating ranged from 30.7%, but ratings dramatically fell down to 17.3% in the end of 2009. In 2012, in polls managed by various news surveys, Aziz's popularity approval ratings ranged at 20.5%. Aziz remained active in political arena of the country and has vigorously defended his financial policies. Aziz criticised the care-taker government of Muhammad Mian Soomro for the economic collapse, and predicted that, "the next elections will sweep, paving the way for a two-party system to emerge with the Pakistan Muslim League in the government and the Peoples Party in the opposition".


title: Shaukat Aziz

text: He remains active on economic issues and harshly criticised the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of failing to show leadership during what he described as a "historic" global financial crisis. While attending the international business conference at Philippines, Aziz maintained that: "This global institution (IMF) which is supposed to look at everything going on was not even in the room where meetings are going on". In 2008, Aziz gave vehement criticism to IMF and according to him, the "IMF has played a very negative role" in global crises.