Islamabad: Toppled in a 1999 military coup, jailed and exiled, Pakistan’s Nawaz Sharif has made a triumphant election comeback and looks set to form a stable government capable of implementing reforms needed to rescue the fragile economy.
Sharif may not win enough seats to rule on his own but has built up enough momentum to avoid having to form a coalition with his main rivals, former cricketer Imran Khan’s Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
Sharif, who advocates free-market economics, is likely to pursue privatisation and deregulation to revive flagging growth. He has said Pakistan should stand on its own two feet but may need to seek a another bailout from the International Monetary Fund to avoid a balance of payments crisis.
The PML-N leader has said he could do business with the IMF, meaning he may be open to reforms like an easing of subsidies and a widening of Pakistan’s tiny tax base to secure billions of dollars from the global lender.
But his main job will be to ease widespread discontent over the Taliban insurgency, endemic corruption, chronic power cuts and crumbling infrastructure. He has described Pakistan as a “mess” and said the key to moving forward is speedy growth.
“A better-than-expected result for Nawaz could prove to be an albatross around his neck,” said Mohammad Malek, a popular current affairs broadcaster.
“With an overwhelming majority of seats and without needing the crutch of coalition partners to form government, he will have fewer excuses for failure on key policy issues such as the economy and terrorism.”
In a reminder of the security challenges that Sharif will face, a blast on a bus in the tribal area of North Waziristan killed 11 people on Sunday, security officials said.
Sharif will likely press for negotiation with the Pakistan wing of the Taliban, whose bombing attacks failed to derail the election, but he could run into resistance from the military which has lost thousands of soldiers fighting the insurgency.
Despite Pakistan’s history of coups, the army stayed out of politics during the five years of the last government and threw its support behind the election.
