Sharif sweeps
Poised to become Pak PM for third time; Manmohan, Karzai want better ties
Pakistan's former prime minister Nawaz Sharif yesterday looked set to return to power for a third term, with an overwhelming election tally that just weeks ago seemed out of reach for a man who had been ousted by a coup and was exiled abroad before clawing his way back as an opposition leader.
As unofficial returns continued to roll in yesterday, state TV estimates put Sharif close to the majority needed to govern outright.
Even if he falls short of that threshold, independent candidates almost certain to swing to his favour would give Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N a ruling majority, reports AP.
The margin of victory over the closest competitors -- a party headed by former cricket star Imran Khan and the outgoing Pakistan People's Party -- gave Sharif's party a clear mandate to guide the country of 180 million over the next five years.
Yesterday, he received a call from Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Afghan President Hamid Karzai congratulating him on his victory.
President Barack Obama also congratulated Pakistan yesterday on its parliamentary elections and said Washington was ready to work "as equal partners" with the government that emerges.
"My administration looks forward to continuing our cooperation with the Pakistani government that emerges from this election as equal partners in supporting a more stable, secure, and prosperous future for the people of Pakistan," Obama said in a statement.
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," he said.
Manmohan Singh congratulated the Pakistani politician Nawaz Sharif on his "emphatic victory" in historic elections and said he hoped for better relations.
Singh wrote on his official Twitter account, "Congratulations to Mr Nawaz Sharif and his party for their emphatic victory in Pakistan's elections".
He said he hoped to work with Sharif to chart "a new course for the relationship" between the nuclear-armed neighbours and invited him to "visit India at a mutually convenient time".
Singh also congratulated "the people and the political parties of Pakistan for braving the threats of violence and voting in large numbers" in Saturday's election.
Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan have fought three wars, two of them over the disputed region of Kashmir. Each administers part of the territory but claims it in full.
They also clashed in 1999 in a limited conflict known as the Kargil war, which broke out when Sharif was prime minister, adds AFP.
Relations between the two countries have been fractious in recent weeks, with both sides protesting at the deaths of prisoners held by the other's government.
Sharif has a track record of trying to improve ties with neighbouring 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 defence spending.
Sharif is also going to need a more friendly and pragmatic foreign policy in his efforts to end Pakistan's long-running domestic insurgencies - the Pakistani Taliban in the tribal areas, the Baluch separatists in Baluchistan and the multiple ethnic and sectarian killings in Karachi.
Blaming India or Afghanistan for helping create Pakistan's own domestic instability, as former regimes have done, resolves nothing, writes Ahmed Rashid in BBC.
The most difficult relationship is likely to be with the Americans. Sharif, like other politicians in this election campaign, has risen on a wave of anti-Americanism.
The army has its own multi-dimensional quarrels with Washington, especially over the use of drone missiles.
However, Sharif knows that he will need US support in order to garner desperately needed aid from the IMF, the World Bank and other global institutions and he cannot do that without US support for a peace process with India and Afghanistan.
In relations with the United States, Sharif is expected to be more nationalistic and protective of state sovereignty than the outgoing government. He defied US opposition to Pakistan's nuclear test in 1998 and has criticised 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 on foreign policy issues and is eager not to lose the hundreds of millions of dollars in US military aid.
In the past, President Asif Ali Zardari virtually surrendered foreign policy decision-making to the army in order to stay on its right side.
Sharif is unlikely to do that and will instead need to co-operate with the army in order to have an effective policy towards brokering peace in Afghanistan between the Americans, President Hamid Karzai and the Taliban leaders, who are all based in Pakistan.
The peaceful withdrawal of US troops next year from Afghanistan through the Pakistani port city of Karachi, the end of the Afghan war and the survival of the regime in Kabul will all largely depend on how seriously Pakistan plays its role in forcing the Taliban to the peace table.
Sharif is keen to do so - simply because he knows he will be unable to tackle Pakistan's internal crisis without peace across the border.
Sharif will face a quandary with Iran as the US puts pressure on Pakistan to abide by UN-mandated sanctions on Iran imposed because of its nuclear programme.
Pakistan has just signed an agreement for a critically-needed gas pipeline to be built between the two countries and Sharif will want to continue that programme as Pakistan is severely lacking in gas supplies.
The five central Asian states - Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan - are already deeply concerned about the US pullout from Afghanistan and the US failure to control the Taliban - for which they also blame the Pakistan military. They will be relieved to see Sharif in power and expect him to broker peace in Afghanistan.
Pakistan's traditional ally, China, which has become increasingly concerned and even privately critical of Pakistan's pandering to extremism and the Taliban, will now seek an ally in Sharif and hope that he will be able to work with the army to end Pakistan's tolerance of extremism.
China is worried because militant Uighur Muslims from the Chinese province of Xinjiang are still receiving training in Pakistan.
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