Pakistan’s new leader

last updated 8 January 2015

For the first time in the country’s history, Pakistan has completed a democratic transfer of power from one elected government to another, as the centrist party of Nawaz Sharif was swept into power. Despite Taliban threats and a campaign interrupted by numerous bombings, turnout was high, at 60 percent. Sharif, a former prime minister who was ousted by the military in 1999, won a clear majority. He trounced the ruling Pakistan People’s Party, led by President Asif Ali Zardari, widower of slain ex-leader Benazir Bhutto, as well as the insurgent party of anti-corruption crusader and former cricket star Imran Khan. A billionaire industrialist, Sharif campaigned on his ability to revive the gasping economy and open talks with the militant groups menacing Pakistan’s tribal areas. Upon his election, he immediately pledged to improve relations with India and the U.S.

Sharif’s comeback is “an astonishing turn of history,” said Omar Waraich in Time.com. During his last term, he was seen as corrupt and inept, and was deeply unpopular by the time Gen. Pervez Musharraf yanked him from office. That Pakistanis trust him now is due mostly to their utter despair over the crippling electricity shortages, with outages lasting 20 hours a day in some places. Sharif’s promise to privatize the electricity sector is just what Pakistan needs, said The Wall Street Journal in an editorial. The country “has been bedeviled for decades by socialist-Islamic policies that stymie the private economy.” And although Sharif has publicly criticized U.S. drone strikes against militants, he has already shown “a welcome political maturity” by promising to work with “our American friends.”

That’s good news for the U.S., said Bruce Riedel in TheDailyBeast.com, since our relations with Pakistan are at “an all-time low.” We’ll need Pakistan’s help in the continuing drone war against Islamic militants in its north, and in keeping supply lines open as our troops withdraw from Afghanistan. Fortunately, Pakistan’s “comeback kid” is a pragmatist—and he knows that Pakistan depends on billions in U.S. aid.