He was re-elected to the National Assembly in 1997 general election and was appointed as the chairman of the Privatization Commission of Pakistan with the status of a minister during the second government of Nawaz Sharif. His tenure was terminated following the counter-coup 1999 coup d'état in which then Chief of Army Staff, Pervez Musharraf, overthrew Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in response to Sharif indirectly hijacking Musharraf's plane and ordering it to land outside Pakistan. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) took Asif into its custody on corruption charges after the military takeover but later, he was released for the lack of any evidence against him. Asif came closer to Nawaz Sharif during the Musharraf rule for keeping the PML-N alive.