Islamabad: From an armchair in Pakistan’s version of The Oval Office, Nawaz Sharif points towards the forested slopes of the Margalla Hills.
“They are the foothills of the Himalayas,” says the man who reacquired the rights to this office - and to this view - when he returned for a third stint as prime minister in June. This comeback has given Sharif arguably the toughest job in the world: governing a nuclear-armed nation of 180 million people, beset by terrorism, economic crisis and a perilous confrontation with India.
Only last week, the army was hunting for Islamist gunmen in the hills outside Sharif’s window in the capital, Islamabad. Meanwhile, Pakistani and Indian forces are once again clashing along the “Line of Control”, running through the disputed territory of Kashmir, barely 50 miles to the east.
In his first interview since returning to office, Sharif, calm, deliberate and assured, makes clear that he sees his election victory as a mandate for peace with India. He talks with genuine feeling about the need for reconciliation with Pakistan’s oldest enemy.
“There will be progress and there has to be progress,” says Sharif. “If we have to prosper, there has to be progress on this.” He says: “We didn’t have any India-bashing slogans in the elections. We don’t believe in such slogans. There have been such slogans in the past - 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago - but not now. In fact, I very clearly spoke about good relations with India even before the elections were happening.”
He goes on: “I made my position very clear: if we get a mandate, we will make sure we pick up the threads from where we left off in 1999 and then reach out to India, sit with them, resolve all our outstanding issues, including the issue of Kashmir, through peaceful means.”
In fact, the 63-year-old politician wants to pick up the threads of his last government in almost every respect. That premiership ended when he was thrown out of power and into jail by his army chief, General Pervez Musharraf, in 1999. This bruising downfall lumbered Sharif with the traditional penalty of political failure in Pakistan - a battery of criminal convictions (all overturned), six months behind bars and seven years’ exile in London and the Gulf.
Having achieved political resurrection by winning the election in May, Sharif might be expected to pose as a new man, wiser and more mature than the politician who was cast out of office.
In fact, he does not follow this script. On his telling, Sharif offers continuity not change; after all, he believes his previous governments were success stories. “We did deliver,” he says. “We were able to meet the expectations of the people to some extent. That is why we were re-elected in 1997 and that is why we have been re-elected in 2013.”
“If I take you back to Nineties, our party came up with very bold reforms in the country, economic reforms. They were really revolutionary reforms.”
During his first premiership between 1990 and 1993, Sharif privatised Pakistan’s banks, insurance companies and key industries. In his mind, he brought the free market not only to his homeland, but to India as well.
“India was taken aback, frankly. India felt that India must also have same reforms in India as Pakistan,” he says. “There was tremendous pressure on the Indian government, I know, that India should also copy the reforms that Pakistan has introduced.”
So you are not a new man - you are the same Nawaz Sharif who ran Pakistan in the Nineties? “I am the same politician who’s trying to pick up the threads of where I left off,” he replies. And you offer continuity not change? “You can call it continuity; you can call it change that still continues and we are now going to make sure that we take it to its logical conclusion.”
You are carrying on the good work that you did in the Nineties? “That was my humble contribution and I will continue to make that humble contribution. We hope that work will also start soon, that we will have a motorway from the northern regions of Pakistan right down to Karachi.”
Pakistanis who have less than fond memories of Sharif’s premierships might recall how he failed to complete a full term (his first stint ended when the president sacked him for alleged corruption). They might marvel at the chutzpah of leader who simply offers more of the same. But, regardless of the baggage he carries, Sharif has the opportunity presented by a clear election victory.
What will be his most important economic reform? Sharif replies that when David Cameron rang with his congratulations, he named his “first three priorities” as “number one economy, number two economy, number three economy”.
As a businessman in his own right, this should be his strongest subject - but he is not wholly convincing. Sharif offers a long disquisition on how he wants foreign investors, including British companies, to cure Pakistan’s endemic power cuts by building new generating capacity, using the hydro-electric potential of the country’s great rivers.
Yet Pakistan is a place where dodging energy bills is pursued with the same diligence as tax evasion. Less than 0.5 per cent of the population pays any tax; fabulously rich citizens, including politicians, brazenly avoid contributing to the national treasury. British taxpayers, by contrast, will give £446 million (Dh2.5 billion) to Pakistan as UK aid in 2015. Fixing tax collection is not a top priority for Sharif.
“I have not yet discussed this matter because, you see, these are very initial days,” he says. “We will have to lower the taxes in the country, the income tax, corporate tax and all the taxes.”
He adds: “There is a lot of leakage in our taxes, it is said that it’s somewhere between 500 and 1,000 billion rupees [Dh17 billion to Dh35 billion].” Some people might be surprised you haven’t discussed this problem more than two months after taking office? “It’s not easy to plug this leakage,” replies the prime minister. “We are in the process of doing that. I think this exercise will take some time. We’ve been just been in office for eight to nine weeks. We are very conscious of this problem,” he says, adding that he is most grateful for British aid. But Sharif acknowledges that security is essential for economic success.
