Will he complete his TERM this time?

By Vinod Varshney
Nawaz Sharief has taken the oath as prime minister of Pakistan for the 3rd time, marking the first democratic transition of power in Pakistan, a country where elected leaders are recklessly thrown out by Military. Nawaz Sharief too was removed in a bloodless coup by general Parvez Musharraf in Oct, 1999. Earlier also he was persuaded by then military chief to step down amidst his legal tiff with the president in the supreme court in 1993.

Nawaz Sharif

    It is indeed the magic of democracy that he has become the prime minister again though his electoral victory this time is not as grand as it was in 1997 when his party Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) had secured two thirds majority in the National Assembly. This time his party has emerged as the largest single party by securing 32.77 percent votes with 126 seats out of 272.  The biggest challenge before Nawaz Sharief will be to bring Pakistan out of anti-Indianism which essentially has ruined Pakistan. Sharief’s early statements indicate that he would improve relations with India. He had demonstrated this in 1999 also when after nuclear tests of 1998 he with Atal Bihari Vajpayee vowed to stop the nuclear race and improve relations with India as outlined in Lahore Declaration. But, general Parvez Musharraf’s anti-Indianism scuttled the gain of Lahore Declaration by Kargil incursion.  Political observers assume that Nawaz Sharief is now more mellowed and astute than ever and would be able to complete full term and solve Pakistan’s problems where economic growth is below 4 percent, people do not get electricity for 18 hours in a day and sectarian violence is rampant. The biggest challenge would be to persuade the US to stop drone attack on Pakistan. He is an industrialist-turned politician and his style of functioning differs from the feudal style of People’s Party of Pakistan leaders. Voters rightly punished ruling PPP, which secured only 15.23 percent votes to come at the third place with 31 seats. The second place was won by cricketer Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, which got more votes than PPP, but less seats, only 29.
 ( The Article was first published in the monthly magazine of political affairs the ' Lokayat' (June, 2013 issue)