By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI – Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s return after four years of self-exile, ahead of the Parliamentary elections due in January 2024, is set to bring a new turn to the volatile politics in the country. Sharif’s return has signalled that the powerful military establishment is willing to extend support to him, as he will challenge his rival Imran Khan and make an attempt to stop his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) from coming back to power.
Immediately after landing in Islamabad by a chartered flight from Dubai, Sharif headed to his hometown Lahore to launch the campaign of his party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), for the elections. He had left for London in 2019 to get medical treatment while serving a 14-year prison sentence for corruption.
Addressing a huge rally at Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore, Sharif said he had never betrayed his supporters nor avoided any kind of sacrifice. He alleged that false and concocted cases were framed against him and his party leaders. “Who are those who separated Nawaz Sharif from his nation? We made Pakistan an atomic power. I was making Pakistan an Asian tiger, but I was ousted,” he said, adding that he had kept working for people’s welfare despite hindrances caused by those opposed to him.
Sharif’s return has been perceived as a deal between him and the military establishment to pave the way for him to become the Prime Minister for the fourth time. He was disqualified from running or holding a public office for his lifetime by the court following his conviction, but he will challenge the judgment through appeals in the higher courts.
“I have no desire to seek revenge but I wish to end Pakistan’s tough economic conditions and put it back on the path of growth,” said the 73-year-old veteran politician in his address to thousands of his supporters at the rally. “My only desire is to see this nation prosper,” he said. Sharif claimed that then-U.S. President Bill Clinton had offered him 5 billion U.S. dollars in 1998 for not conducting the nuclear tests but he went ahead with the programme.
Though Sharif’s two convictions remain in force, the Islamabad High Court has granted him protective bail till October 24, when he is to appear in the court. His biggest challenge will be to wrest back his support base from Imran Khan, who despite being in jail remains popular following his ouster from the Prime Minister’s office in April 2022. Khan has also been disqualified from the election because of his graft conviction and he has appealed against the court verdict.
The PTI has called Sharif a “national criminal” while affirming that the Pakistan government had buried shame, modesty, law and justice with its own hands by paving the way for the fugitive to return home under a judicial asylum.
Pakistan, with a population of 24.1 crores, is experiencing the impact of an economic crisis which has worsened during the 16-month rule of Nawaz Sharif’s younger brother Shehbaz Sharif, who led a coalition government after Khan’s removal. The elder Sharif has a record of pursuing economic growth and development. When he was removed as the Prime Minister in 2017, Pakistan’s growth rate was 5.8% and inflation was around 4%. In September this year, inflation was more than 31% year-on-year and growth is projected to be less than 2% in the current financial year.
Rising costs of living have imposed severe pressures on the people of Pakistan after Shehbaz Sharif’s government had to agree to harsh fiscal adjustments to resume funding from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which had suspended payments after Khan scuttled a deal in his last days in office. Nawaz Sharif has claimed that he was removed at the behest of the military after he fell out with top generals. According to the former Prime Minister, the military thereafter backed Khan in the 2018 general elections.
Sharif started his third tenure as the Prime Minister in 2013 and his rule helped create relative economic stability in the country. He was able to complete a handful of large infrastructure projects and reduced the crippling power outages which have affected Pakistan’s industrial sector. His troubles started in 2016 with the leak of the Panama Papers, which showed that he and his family had amassed vast assets, including residential properties in London.
Although Sharif denied any wrongdoing, the Supreme Court disqualified him from the Prime Minister’s office in June 2017, declaring him dishonest. As a result, he had to step down from office. About a year later, the Supreme Court imposed a lifetime ban on him from taking part in politics or holding any public office in a first-of-its-kind decision.
In December 2018, another court convicted Sharif in a corruption case and sentenced him to prison, and imposed a fine of 25 million U.S. dollars on him. The judgment came a few months after his party lost to PTI in the general elections. He was allowed to leave the jail on health grounds in November 2019 and he flew to London, only to return around four years later.
According to political analysts in Pakistan, the military has paved the way for Sharif’s return to defeat the PTI in the upcoming general elections, as PTI chief Imran Khan remains the most popular leader in the country. The Pakistani Army is pinning hopes on Sharif’s experience and charisma to turn things around for the PML-N and ensure the PTI’s defeat.
However, Sharif will need to get his corruption-related convictions overturned to be able to run for office. The relations between Sharif and the military had soured over the foreign policies, including ties with India. While he advocated improvement in relations with India, there were differences over the issues such as terror attacks carried out by Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pathankot and Uri.
As Sharif also locked horns with the Army generals over the day-to-day governance of Pakistan, the military decided to remove him and allegedly orchestrated his ouster. The analysts opine that it was the military that had propped up Imran Khan as Sharif’s main challenger and helped him win the 2018 general elections. Later, serious differences developed between Khan and the military over the security appointments, and the PTI chief was ousted as the Prime Minister in a Parliamentary vote of no-confidence last year.
