[attach id=253538 size="medium"]Nawaz Sharif, leader of the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) political party. Photo: Reuters[/attach]
Toppled in a 1999 military coup, jailed and exiled, Pakistan’s Nawaz Sharif yesterday made a triumphant election comeback and now 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 People’s Party (PPP).
The steel magnate held off a challenge from Khan, who had hoped to break decades of dominance by Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) and the PPP, led by the Bhutto family.
The two parties have formed governments whenever the military, the most powerful institution in the nuclear-armed nation, has allowed civilian rule.
Khan put up a strong fight and he is likely to remain a force in politics, possibly becoming the main opposition figure. The PPP, which led the government for the past five years, has done badly and could come in third place.
Sharif appears to have both a genuine mandate as well as a grasp of the direction Pakistan needs to be steered in
TV channels said of the results declared by yesterday evening, Sharif’s PML-N had captured 94 of the 272 contested National Assembly seats.
Based on trends, it was likely to get around 130, and should easily be able to make up the required majority of 137 with support from independents and small parties.
The PTI has secured 21 seats while the PPP won 19.
The elections, held on Saturday, were marred by a campaign by Islamic fundamentalists to block the voting. Despite pre-poll violence and attacks that killed at least 40 people, voter turnout was a robust 60 per cent.
Once it establishes a majority, Sharif’s party would be allocated a majority of 70 other parliamentary seats that are reserved for women and non-Muslim minorities.
Sharif has waited patiently to rule Pakistan again. As the main opposition leader, he avoided undermining the PPP when it was in trouble, and analysts describe him as more cautious than when he was prime minister twice in the 1990s.
“Seemingly a genuinely changed man from his troubling stints as prime minister in the 90s, Sharif now appears to have both a genuine mandate as well as a grasp of the direction Pakistan needs to be steered in,” said political analyst Cyril Almeida.
In one sense, the polls were a democratic landmark, marking the first time one elected government was to replace another in a country vulnerable to military takeovers.
But Saturday’s vote failed to realise the hopes of many that the hold of patronage-based parties would end after years of misrule and corruption.
Sharif, 63, is almost certain to become prime minister for a third time. The religious conservative has said the army, which has ruled the country for more than half of its turbulent 66-year history, should stay out of politics.