Hunger, Poverty and Development — Life and Work of Sartaj Aziz

Compiled by Anwar Dil-Intercultural Forum, San Diego, California-2000 — Printed and Published by Ferozsons (Pvt) Limited - 60 Shahrae Quaid e Azam Lahore-2000 — Hardbound-592 Pages-ISBN 969-0-01622-9.

Maj (Retd) AGHA HUMAYUN AMIN from WASHINGTON DC reviews the book by SENATOR SARTAJ AZIZ.

“Hunger Poverty and Development “is a compilation of forty odd essays or articles of Mr Sartaj Aziz the ex Finance and Foreign Minister of Pakistan. The “Intercultural Forum” a private, non-profit international organisation of scholars interested in promoting intercultural studies research and publication has published the book. The “Intercultural Forum” has already done some valuable work, most prominent of which are volumes on Munir Niazi’s poetry and one book on the Bengali Language Movement. The vast bulk of the volume under review, barring some general essays, is meant for serious readers, research scholars, particularly those who are keen to understand Pakistan’s economic problems and are doing research on Pakistan’s Economic History.

Mr Sartaj Aziz, a Pathan from the North West Frontier Province is an economist by education, who studied at Islamia and Hailey College Lahore and started his career as a government servant in the department of Information of the NWFP Government. Sartaj described as a soft-spoken but extremely meticulous competent and hardworking man by many contemporaries rose rapidly in the civil hierarchy and served in key positions like Secretary of the Administrative Reorganisation Committee of the Government of Pakistan and as Chief of International Economics Section in the Government of Pakistan. He also went abroad during his career and earned a masters degree in development economics from the Harvard University in 1963. He served as the Joint Secretary of the Planning Commission of Pakistan from 1967 to 1971 and then went abroad and served with distinction in the UNO’s Food and Agricultural Organisation. Mr Sartaj Aziz entered Pakistani politics as a technocrat once he was appointed a minister of State for Food and Agriculture in 1984. He later served with greater distinction as the Finance Minister from 1990-1993, 1997-98 and as Foreign Minister in 1998-1999.

Sartaj Aziz by virtue of his career as a civil servant, as a UN food body official and as a federal minister saw the working of the Government of Pakistan from very close quarters. This makes his writings more authoritative since they are an insider’s version.

The essays/articles/papers have been compiled by Mr Anwar Dil an eminent educationist. The book is divided into five parts i.e a section on “Food Hunger and Poverty”, “The Chinese Experience”, “Global Development Issues”, “Pakistan: Political and Economic Issues” and “Selections from Personal Diary”. In addition the book contains some very interesting photographs which surprisingly show that Sartaj was a student leader and played a role as a student in the Pakistan Movement. In this regard the first four photographs showing Sartaj with Mr Jinnah are particularly interesting.

The first part deals with global issues of “Food, Poverty and Hunger”. The fourteen essays in this section are useful for the layman reader who is interested in economics and enable him to acquire a lot of understanding about the world’s food problems. These essays are also useful for the research scholar who will find some valuable insights about the world food problems. These essays are the result of Sartaj’s stint in the FAO.

The second set of essays dealing with the “Chinese Experience” is a kind of culmination of Sartaj Aziz’s contribution to the comparative study of different development models and is useful for all scholars doing research in Chinese studies. Sartaj explains the Chinese Agricultural model and evaluates Chinese Agricultural policy. Sartaj is sympathetic in his attitude and adopts a common sense approach in understanding the Chinese dilemmas and the dynamic manner in which the Chinese led by Chairman Mao endeavoured to solve them. Now this is an entirely different approach from the typically hostile approach adopted by Western scholars in dealing with Communist China.

The third part dealing with Global Economic issues deal with important themes like North-South dialogue, the energy crisis and then the problems of international trade of the 70s and 80s but the underlying themes projecting these deals with relations between the developed and developing nations remain valid for the contemporary world.

The fourth part dealing with “Pakistan: Political and Economic Issues” is particularly useful and thought-provoking. The most interesting albeit sad article in this section is “A Surprise Visit by the Quaid” in which Sartaj writes about a dream in which Mr Jinnah visited Pakistan of today and was intensely disillusioned with the state of affairs. Mr Jinnah’s concluding remark as Sartaj ironically albeit rightly imagined was “I wish I had not paid this visit to Pakistan”. The article published in May 1990 illustrates the disillusionment of many Pakistanis with Jinnah’s Pakistan in terms of the immense gap between the professed ideals and the harsh reality. I feel that Sartaj should write another series of these articles with Mr Jinnah visiting Pakistan at the end of each term of each of its Prime Ministers since 1990 and sum up the impressions. In all probability Jinnah will return with the same conclusion and this includes the present regime too! The essay on Pakistan’s ideology is also thought-provoking. Other essays include one on “Energy Policy”, “Privatisation” “Central Asia” and “Four Thousand Days to 2000”. His article on perils of high cost of imported energy published in 1984 vividly foresees the problem which the country is facing today with IPPs.  Unfortunately we are living in 2000 and have achieved very little of what Sartaj had rightly but idealistically visualised or hoped for in 1989.

The fifth section contains “Selections from Personal Diary”. The most thought provoking and interesting of these is the one on East Pakistan Crisis. The essay contains selections from Sartaj’s diary from 1968 till 1971. It contains thought-provoking insights, on the events as Sartaj saw them as an educated and liberal man and as a patriot. Sartaj was appalled at Ayub’s political naivety and was in full sympathy with the East Pakistani aspirations. He was very worried about the country’s political future as he writes in the year 1968. He rightly finds the decade of 1960 as one, which saw Pakistan’s “Best and worst years”. His feelings successively grow more and more tense as 1971 draws nearer. He sadly reflects on 31 March 1971 that “The 26th of March was the saddest days in our brief history and the past week most tragic in our political life”. This paper contains a very thought-provoking and informative appendix on the issue of economic exploitation of the East Wing by the West wing. Here Aziz dismisses many myths and proves that the issue was more political than economic.

“Hunger, Poverty and Development” is a fine addition to the limited number of scholarly books dealing with Pakistan’s economic problems. In addition it contains some essays which are of great interest for the layman reader. Sartaj Aziz is a specialist and thus as Bertrand Russell says should be read rather than challenged. What he writes may not be the gospel truth but certainly possesses significant weight since it is based on many decades of study and direct experience in various key positions in Pakistan’s government hierarchy and higher echelons of power.  Anwar Dil has performed a valuable task in compiling these articles and must be given 100 percent marks for doing so. However, the book as primarily covers Sartaj Aziz’s early international career and his study of development issues but does not fully cover Sartaj’s political career after 1990. It is felt that Sartaj Aziz must write his memoirs analysing Pakistan’s economic problems in greater detail while also describing his experiences as a member of civil service and as a federal minister with two of the Nawaz Sharif ministries. These memoirs will be a valuable addition to the extremely limited number of memoirs dealing with Pakistan’s political and economic history.

“Hunger, Poverty and Development” is a must be read book for all who wish to understand Pakistan’s economy and many of its political and economic problems. The book is useful for the research scholar and the layman reader and extremely useful for anyone who is engaged in research dealing with Pakistan, Agricultural Policy and Global Economic Issues.