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| Fresh beginnings | | Pakistan in for a change | |
A new civilian government will replace another civilian government, for the first time in 65 years in Pakistan. Riding on the change will be the electorate’s hope that the Pakistan Muslim League (N) of Nawaz Sharif will be the harbinger of change. Sharif has won a large number of seats and there is no doubt that he will soon be the Prime Minister of Pakistan for the third time. Sharif has tapped deep into his home ground, Punjab, where his party won most of the seats it fought. There is no doubt that the voters wanted a change, which is why the incumbent Asif Ali Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party was trounced badly, even as Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf registered wins which were significant, but not as impressive as had been expected in some quarters.
Sharif has much to do in Pakistan. He is expected to push Pakistani economy, which has been registering a less-than-impressive growth rate of under 4 per cent a year. The man credited with the Lahore-Islamabad expressway is also expected to give a boost to infrastructure creation and to tackle energy shortages, that have become perennial in the nation. He will need to strengthen various institutions and administrative machinery in the country, without getting into confrontation with the judiciary and the armed forces, something that cost him his second term as Prime Minster when General Pervez Musharraf staged a coup and ousted him in 1999.
Sharif’s relationship with the Taliban will come in for greater scrutiny now, and he will have to tackle domestic terrorism, which marred even the recent elections. Internationally, he has taken a populist stand against the US drone attacks in Pakistan, something that his rival Imran Khan, too, opposed vociferously during campaigning. The US-Pakistan relationship is going through a rather delicate phase and Sharif will have to negotiate the best he can with the major geo-political interests in the region. He has spoken about his desire to improve relations with India, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, too, has responded positively to these overtures. Clearly the man who will be Prime Minister of Pakistan has much on his plate, he will have to display administrative ability, dexterity and maturity in performing the job. His supporters will certainly hope that he is third time lucky. |
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