The May 2013 election in Pakistan was surprising for many. The clear majority victory of PML(N) was not digestive for many political parties especially the PTI, who was expecting much better position in Punjab then achieved. Before the elections, PTI was assumed to have the popular support but this was not translated into the final results. It was also probably unexpected for Mr. Nawaz Sharif, which he later in his interview acknowledged, to achieve clear majority in the assembly. That’s why they immediately came out to the public, without waiting for the final results to be announced and celebrated their success.
Then the magic of Nawaz Sharif started revealing many surprises. He immediately visited his rival Imran khan at hospital and enquired about his health. These moves are rarely seen in underdeveloped countries' politics, where leaders are much aggressive against their rival especially to show to the public. But he continued showing reconciliatory stance and offer his main rivalry party PTI to make government in the Khyber Pakhtoonkha Province, even though he was receiving strong offers from the second largest party there but Nawaz Shareef refused and clearly said that he respects the PTI mandate. This is not the end of his magic stick; he after serious consultations, despite the fact that he is the leading party in Balochistan Province backed the Nationalist parties for making the government. These miracles translated into the political stability in the country.
Continuing his action in political front, Nawaz Sharif’s government from the beginning recognized economy as a major challenge. This is the reason he chose Mr. Ishaq Dar, a veteran politico-economist, as a finance minister. His first task was to present budget for the year 2013-14, the budget is basically an aggressive one and allocate highest ever fund in PSDF. While to finance these, government increased tax rates and other measures to increase budget. The government is still working on the proposal to remove tax reliefs. Then government moves quickly to IMF to finance payments of the IMF loan taken by the previous government. On the other hand, calming the popular unrest relating to load shedding among the government’s voters, the finance minister quickly resolves the circular debt issue. The major achievement of the government is acquiring the GSP+ status in the European markets which is expecting to raise Pakistani exports by up to $2 billion.
On the foreign policy front, The Chinese premier visited the country and offered PM to first visit his country. The Prime Minister accepted his offer on the other hand people were assuming that he would visit S. Arabia first as he owed much to Arab leaders. The China visit is earmarked with a number of economic projects agreements especially Gwadar seaport and the corridor linking to China via Karakoram highway. The government took Pak-India ties as an important challenge. Despite many criticisms, he strongly maintained his stance of making good relationship with the neighbour countries. The outcomes of this stance, resulted in the better image of Pakistan in International community and the recent talks between the two countries DGMOs after 14 years. Due to the positive image of Mr. Nawaz Sharif, the British PM also visited Pakistan and congratulated him for becoming Prime Minister. Since the Arab Leaders have much influence over Nawaz Sharif, therefore this government attracts Arab leaders here but yet no solid step relating to Arab investments and Aid is finalized, which was expected since the begining, especially to finance the circular debt. The Pakistan relationship with Afghanistan also improved during this era,as Pakistan government gave access to Afghan Intelligence to the Mulla Barader. This further improved when two countries declared not to interfere in each other's affairs, the step is important especially in a situation when previously both countries strongly criticize each other in supporting rebellion groups in their country. One of the important long-term foreign policy development of this government is the recent strategic level talks with the Russian delegate, since, Russia’s influence in the region is expected to increase and it will play important role in future politics of the region.
Despite his weaknesses he has been able to clearly define his vision relating to counter terrorism and law-and-order situation in the country and difficulty in capturing the inflation. We hope that the mature leadership of Mr. Nawaz Sharif will bear positive fruits to the Pakistanis in long run.
