????Nawaz Sharif looks poised to return to office with a resounding election victory — a mandate that could make it easier to tackle Pakistan’s daunting problems, including growing power outages, weak economic growth and shaky government finances. Sharif returns to power after turbulent election CONGRATULATIONS are already pouring in from abroad, while his supporters have been dancing in the streets of his stronghold city Lahore, Pakistan’s second-largest city and the capital of Punjab Province. ????Now, Nawaz Sharif is set to become Pakistan’s next Prime Minister. Again. ????The head of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) won 122 of the 272 seats in the May 12 legislative elections. And despite the Taliban’s attempts at undermining the voting process, the voter turnout was notably high (around 60 percent). ????The victory over the closest competitors — a party headed by former cricket star Imran Khan and the outgoing Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) — gave Sharif’s party a clear mandate to guide the country of 180 million over the next five years. ????“It’s clear that Nawaz Sharif will form the federal government,” said political analyst Mehdi Hasan. ????Violence marred the vote in the southern port city of Karachi, in the northwest and in the southwestern province of Baluchistan. At least 29 people died in election-related attacks, but people still came out in droves. Election officials said the turnout was close to 60 percent, easily eclipsing the 44 percent of voters who came to the polls in 2008. ????Sharif fended off a strong challenge from Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party. Khan, who led the country to victory in the 1992 cricket World Cup, had tapped into the frustrations of many Pakistani youths fed up with the country’s traditional politicians. ????But in the end, it was Sharif and the PML-N who emerged as the clear winners. The seat projections indicated that his party would have a much stronger grip on power than its predecessor. ????Supporters in Lahore said they hoped that would bring progress after the outgoing PPP government, which much of the country saw as only focused on own survival. ????The 63-year-old Sharif served as prime minister twice during the 1990s and oversaw Pakistan’s first nuclear weapons test, but was ousted in a coup in 1999 by former chief of the army, Gen. Pervez Musharraf. ????Sharif went into exile in Saudi Arabia and only returned to Pakistan in 2007. Even then, he was forced to sit on the sidelines as his party contested parliamentary elections after a court disqualified him from running. He had a prior criminal conviction for terrorism and hijacking stemming from Musharraf’s coup — Sharif was accused at the time of denying the general’s plane permission to land. ????The Supreme Court overturned the conviction in 2009. ????Over the last five years, Sharif put steady pressure on the PPP-led government, but, wary of army interference, never enough to threaten its hold on power. This attitude helped enable parliament to complete its term and transfer power in democratic elections for the first time since the country was founded in 1947. ????Sharif now faces the monumental task of governing a country with rising inflation, rolling blackouts, and a powerful Taliban insurgency. ????The PML-N will also inherit a rocky relationship with neighboring Afghanistan. Afghan President Hamid Karzai on May 12 praised Pakistan for having carried out general elections despite the violence. ????While promising “full cooperation” with Pakistan’s new government, Karzai alluded to the often hostile relationship between the two countries and his suspicions that Islamabad has in the past aided insurgents and contributed to Afghanistan’s instability. ????“We hope that the new elected government provides the ground for peace and brotherhood with Afghanistan, and to sincerely cooperate in rooting out terrorist sanctuaries,” Karzai said. ????Analysts say Sharif is likely to want to assert a stronger influence over the Pakistani military than President Asif Ali Zardari or his PPP government have, which could cause tension. Sharif’s relationship with the army will be watched closely for any sign of a rift similar to the one in 1999. ????He’ll also be observed to see what moves — if any — he takes to reign in militants and deal with religious extremists who have threatened the country’s stability for years. Critics say the PML-N has tolerated extremist groups in the party’s stronghold of Punjab Province. ????In relations with the United States, Sharif is expected to be more nationalistic and protective of state sovereignty than the outgoing government. He defied U.S. opposition to Pakistan’s nuclear test in 1998 and has criticized the Afghan conflict as “America’s War.” ????But the often testy ties between Washington and Islamabad are not expected to change radically since Pakistan’s powerful army still plays a dominant role in foreign policy issues and is eager not to lose the hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. military aid. ????Washington will also play a deciding role in any bailout package that Pakistan will almost certainly need from the International Monetary Fund to prop up its ailing economy. ????Sharif will face a host of economic problems. Pakistanis suffer through power outages that can last 18 hours a day and extensive gas outages in the winter. Inflation has risen sharply, and foreign investment has dropped. ????The new government will need to address how to increase the country’s tax revenue, reduce fuel subsidies and restructure ailing state-run industries, said Ashfaq Ahmed, dean of the business school of the Islamabad-based National University of Sciences and Technology. ????Sharif has a track record of trying to improve ties with Pakistan’s arch rival, neighboring India, and is expected to continue to work toward that while in power. A thaw in relations could improve Pakistan’s economy by opening up trade with India and — in the long-term — by reducing the need for defense spending. ????The election in many ways highlighted ethnic divisions that have plagued Pakistan since its inception in 1947. ????The PML-N drew most of its strength from Punjab Province. The Punjabis are the country’s largest ethnic group, and the province has sometimes alienated the rest of Pakistan by its dominance in government and the military. ????The PPP was relegated to Sindhi-speaking areas in southern Pakistan. Khan, an ethnic Pashtun, dominated in the mostly Pashtun areas of northwestern Pakistan. ????Sharif will have to work hard to show that he represents all of Pakistan, not just Punjab Province. ????“If there is a heavy mandate from Punjab particularly the smaller provinces will complain that Punjab is exploiting him,” said the political analyst Hasan. ????Khan’s party was in close competition with the PPP over who would form the second-largest bloc in parliament. That’s a significant gain for a party that had only ever won one national assembly seat previously. ????(SD-Agencies) | 