Shaukat Aziz - Post-politics

Post-politics

After completing his term, Shaukat Aziz lastly met with Pervez Musharraf before departing to United Kingdom where he currently resides in London, United Kingdom. There, Aziz is currently serving on the Boards of 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 Railway 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 remains active in political arena of the country and vigorously defended his financial policies. Aziz criticized the care-taker government of Muhammad Mian Soomro for economical 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".

He remains active on economical issues and harshly criticized 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.

Speaking at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations conference in 2008, Aziz maintains his views that the Financial crisis occurred due to financial mismanagement, lack of understanding the macroeconomics principles and fragmented regulatory regimes in the world. In an interview with CNN, Aziz remains pessimist about Pakistan's approach to Free Trade Agreement with the United States in 2012 by judging the current relations with the United States and economical challenges faced by the country.