Pakistan votes for Nawaz Sharif, Imran rides Taliban tiger
By Subhash Chopra
Delhi !2 May2013
The people of Pakistan defied Talibani terror on Saturday (11May, 2013)and voted with hands and heads to elect a truly democratic government which takes over from the only elected government which completed its full term for the first time in the country’s 66-year history. And it was a clear mandate for former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who has vowed to revive links of Atal Bihari Vajpayee days with India as he returns to power after fourteen years when he was overthrown, deposed and exiled by the then Army chief General Pervez Musharraf.
This historic poll promises Pakistan a new era (daur) , not of Imran Khan’s anti-American , anari vision lacking any experience but of Nawaz Sharif’s vision backed by tried and tested record of two earlier half completed terms as prime minister. Imran Khan’s own achievement , though, is pretty impressive, having risen from a virtual zero to hero and coming third after PPP as an opposition leader, with his party winning about 25 seats at the centre against Nawaz Sharif party’s nearly 125. Imran’s party had just one seat in the first election and none in the 2008 election which he boycotted. Even more impressive is Imran’s party’s sweep in the frontier province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and where it is set to form government, having routed the party of Frontier Gandhi’s grandson Afsandyar Wali Khan. But he faces his toughest test in the province where he is coming to power on the back of Taliban support. Riding the Taliban tiger won’t be easy even for him.
With election results nearing completion, Nawaz Sharif’s PML-N (Pakistan Muslim League-N) is sure of running a government of his own party , requiring only a nominal outside support. The field is clear for him and so are the challenges facing him and his party at the national level. But there is not much cheer for him in all the other three provincial assemblies, With only a possible coalition role in Balochistan.
But it won’t be a cake walk for the third time Premier. Internal and external challenges are quite daunting and delivery of promises could be pretty daunting, to say the least. Pulling the country out of the economic and administrative mess riddled with unending power crisis and load shedding , creaking railways and massive corruption will fully test his own and his party’s skill and determination. Perhaps the biggest internal challenge he faces right from the start is how to hold the reins or put a lagam on the powerful army and its bed fellow and maid servant called bureaucracy, especially the foreign ministry. Both the army and the maid servant have for long thrived on the Kashmir issue , holding the country to ransom for all of its 66 years till today. Nor can Nawaz Sharif ignore or duck this core issue, even though the K word was not much heard of in the election campaigns of the parties.
The Kashmir issue is both an internal and external policy matter of utmost difficulty . And that will require an internal dialogue with moderate nationalist parties as well as the extremist jihadi groups, a very tough nut to crack.
Externally, the new prime minister will have to thrash out issues with neighbours India, Afghanistan and long time friend and aid donor America, the last one being currently dubbed as Enemy Number One by vast sections of Pakistani public. Fortunately for both India and Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif has more than once expressed his determination to establish friendly relations with India by picking up the thread where he left in 1999 when he was engaged in a path breaking dialogue with former Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, before the coup by General Musharraf and his Kargil adventure.
Sharif has vowed not only revive the dialogue but also to open a trade corridor through Pakistan , linking India and Afghanistan. A highly dynamic and bold move which could transform the entire region and the economy of both Pakistan and Afghanistan. The resulting savings on defence on Pakistan’ s Indian and Afghan borders could free up vast resources among all sides.
Nobody in Pakistan has tried this friendship route so far, though former Prime minister Benazir Bhutto, President Asif Ali Zardari and even General Musharraf all had floated the idea from time to time in some form or the other. Perhaps Nawaz Sharif can succeed where others have failed because time was not on their side. Their tenure or even life in the case of Benazir Bhutto was cut short by the tide of events.
Given luck, the new prime minister can do it. It is not un-doable. The K issue can be put on the slow burner, not on the back burner. The Indo-Pak dialogue has failed so far because of the previous Pakistani governments’ insistence on putting Kashmir issue on the front burner. India –China example is the way forward. If New Delhi and Beijing can keep disagreements in check while working for a long and durable solution, so can Islamabad and New Delhi. This slow burner strategy has already yielded huge dividends with two-way trade galloping towards $100 billion annual mark.
Pakistan and India have much more in common than India and China. As Nawaz Sharif untiringly reminds both sides: “ We eat the same food, speak the same language suffer the same problems, react the same way and pray the same way to the same God , Allah or Ishwar.” Why can’t the two come on the same thinking page? he asks. Amen and welcome, say most Indians. Sooner the better.
Unlike Imran’s anti-American shrieks (cheekh pukar), Nawaz Sharif has a cool view of America and is openly prepared to do business with the USA. He knows full well that Pakistan is in dire need of US and IMF aid to pull the country’s economy out of the deep hole into which it has fallen over the recent past, especially during the PPP rule of the last five years. He is an industrialist and a businessman and would gladly do business with America, which incidentally is a great friend of Saudi Arabia without whose blessing nothing works in Pakista n. General Musharraf made that mistake of not seeking that Saudi blessing and is reduced to being a jail bird in the country he once ruled.
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Subhash Chopra is the author of ‘Partition, Jihad & Peace.’
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