Nawaz Sharif (centre), the leader of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz gestures as he speaks to foreign reporters at his residence outside Lahore yesterday.
LAHORE: Nawaz Sharif, poised to become prime minister for a third time after a decisive victory in the general election, yesterday said the mistrust that has dogged Pakistan’s relations with India must be tackled.
He said he had a “long chat” with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and both exchanged invitations to visit.
Asked if he would invite Singh to his swearing-in, Sharif said: “I will be very happy to extend that invitation. There are fears on your side, there are fears on our side,” he told a news conference at his home outlying Lahore. “We have to seriously address this.”
A free marketeer, Sharif wants to see bilateral trade unshackled, and has a history of making conciliatory gestures towards New Delhi.
In 1999, when he was prime minister, Sharif stood at the frontier post waiting to welcome counterpart Atal Behari Vajpayee to arrive on the inaugural run of a bus service between New Delhi and Lahore.
But by May, 1999, both sides were sucked into a new conflict as then-army chief Pervez Musharraf sent forces across the line dividing the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. By October, Sharif had been ousted by Musharraf in a bloodless coup.
Sharif’s return to power 14 years later has raised concern he will cross swords with the military, which has controlled Pakistan’s foreign and security policies. But Sharif said he “never had any trouble with the army”, and would ensure the military and the civilian government work together on security and economic problems.
Musharraf resigned as president in 2008 and went into self-imposed exile abroad. He returned in March to run in last Saturday’s general election. He was arrested for his crackdown on the judiciary during his rule and put under house arrest.
Sharif said his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) won enough of the 272 National Assembly seats to rule on its own, but suggested he was open to allies joining his government.
He inherits a stack of challenges from a government led for the past five years by Pakistan People’s Party, which failed to tackle corruption, poverty and Taliban.
Another bailout from the International Monetary Fund to avoid a new balance of payments crisis is inevitable. Sharif has suggested he would be willing to implement reforms to secure an IMF lifeline. He has picked Senator Ishaq Dar as his finance minister, a party spokesman said.
Sharif said ahead of the poll that Pakistan should reconsider its support for the US war on Islamist militancy and suggested he favoured talks with the Taliban.
Pakistan backed US efforts to stamp out global militancy after the 9/11 attacks on the US and was rewarded with billions of dollars in aid. But many Pakistanis have grown resentful, saying thousands of Pakistani soldiers have died fighting “the US war”.
Sharif said Islamabad and Washington have “good relations” and “need to listen to each other”.
Asked about drone strikes on Pakistani soil, which many regard as a violation of sovereignty, he said it is a “challenge” to sovereignty. “We will sit with our American friends and talk to them about this issue.”
Meanwhile, underlining security issues facing Sharif, a truck bomb destroyed the home of the police chief in the western province of Baluchistan. The officer survived but five people died and 68 were injured. It was not clear if the Taliban or Baluch nationalists were responsible.
President Barack Obama has said Washington would continue to work with the new government as equal partners in supporting a more stable, secure, and prosperous future for the people of Pakistan.
Sartaj Aziz, a senior PML-N official and former Sharif cabinet minister, denied there would be a substantive change of strategy against the Taliban in the northwest. He said what was needed was a “composite strategy” involving military action as well as negotiation.
Experts expect little change in policy on Afghanistan, citing a cross-party and civilian-military consensus on doing what they can to help bring peace.
Sharif promised Pakistan’s “full support” as the US withdraws combat troops from Afghanistan next year. Pakistan will be a key transit point for shipping home equipment overland to the port at Karachi.
In Karachi, the benchmark index of top 100 shares rose 1.6 percent to 20,250.42 points in afternoon trade, surpassing the 20,000 mark for the first time as election results defied analysts’ predictions of a weak parliament.
Investors are hopeful of an economic revival under Sharif.
Agencies
