Manmohan Singh (top) and Shaukat Aziz

Islamabad, June 27: Much of their history is common, but when Shaukat Aziz takes over as Prime Minister both Pakistan and India will be led by a technocrat with a finance background.

As the guided democracy trundled on in the shadow of Pakistan’s military establishment, the power brokers moved a pawn on the political chessboard by announcing the appointment of Aziz as the future Prime Minister.

Like Manmohan Singh, Aziz’s future position will be an elevation from his current role as finance minister.

A career banker who has the reputation of a finance wizard, Aziz is expected to project to the international community Pakistan ’s liberal face and its ability to keep pace with global economic challenges.

But major political forces in the country have not reacted favourably to what marked the end of a series of President Pervez Musharraf’s consultation with MPs and aides.

Leading Opposition stalwarts, including Qazi Hussein Ahmad, chief of the six-party Islamic opposition Alliance, Muttahida Maljis-e-Amal, and Makhdoom Amin Fahim, who heads the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy, castigated Musharraf for “playing dirty with the system and democracy”.

“There is a hell of a lot of difference leading a bank and the country as Prime Minister,” they said.

On the contrary, the business community was happy to have Aziz as the next Prime Minister.

“He (Shaukat Aziz) is an expert on economy and the country can benefit from his experience,” Ikram Sehgal, a leading businessman, said.

The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry was also optimistic that Pakistan would make rapid strides under Aziz’s leadership.

Business and industry in India, too, reacted in much the same way to Singh’s ascendance to the Prime Minister’s chair, though, like Aziz, he lacks political experience.

After removing Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali yesterday, Musharraf decided to appoint Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain as Prime Minister, but the leader of the Pakistan Muslim League and the strongest civilian power broker will only be caretaker.

Just as Singh, Aziz is a member of the upper house of Pakistan’s National Assembly. But, unlike in India, a Pakistani Prime Minister has to be elected to the lower house in order to hold that position.

So, Aziz has to wait till August by when he will be elected from a safe seat. There have been reports in the Indian media that Singh is being offered a safe seat in Andhra Pradesh.

Aziz said that Pakistan had the potential to emerge as a vibrant economic power like China, Malaysia and Thailand. “What we need is political acumen and sagacity to move ahead. We all have to look forward and work together for the country’s rapid economic development.”

Pakistan’s would-be Prime Minister spent his entire professional career in Citibank and enjoys close rapport with leading international financial institutions like the World Bank and the IMF.

He was appointed finance minister by Musharraf after Nawaz Sharif’s ouster in October 1999, a position he continued to hold in Jamali’s government.

Aziz earned Musharraf’s confidence by overseeing a sharp turnaround in the country’s fortunes after taking charge when the country was virtually bankrupt — echoes of the Manmohan Singh of 1991.

At the end of this year, for the first time, Pakistan will have successfully completed two International Monetary Fund programmes after several aborted efforts in the 1990s.

Opposition politicians are not looking at his bio-data, though. “One thing is clear that the establishment and the military rulers don’t want politics, parliament and democracy to take strength,” said Liaquat Baluch, a leader in the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal.

Pakistan ’s chequered democracy suffered another shock yesterday when Jamali was shown the door. Though the outgoing Prime Minister did not cite any reasons for stepping down, it is believed that Jamali had to pay for the slow pace of legislation and a lacklustre approach to Musharraf’s reforms agenda.

It delivered a lesson to Pakistan ’s watchers that the survival of the government largely depends on the sweet will of the President, who also heads the army that rules the country since its independence and has been instrumental in getting six Prime Ministers removed since 1985.

“Shaukat Aziz won’t be managing politics. The Pakistan army will do it for him,” Reuters quoted Asad Saeed, an independent political analyst, as saying.

Although not quite comparable, the politics under the new Indian government is being “managed” by Congress president Sonia Gandhi while Singh runs the country.