Manmohan Singh Congratulates Sharif

[Vikrant]

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has congratulated Nawaz Sharif on his election win in Pakistan, saying it was a “significant victory” for democracy in the country.

Mr. Singh said the Indian people had watched the voting process with admiration and added that he looked forward to working with Mr. Sharif and his government to “chart a new course and pursue a new destiny in the relations between our countries.” He also invited the Pakistani leader to visit India at “a mutually convenient time.”

“I am writing to extend to you my heartiest congratulations on your emphatic victory in the general elections in Pakistan. You have received a strong mandate to lead Pakistan towards a stable, peaceful and prosperous future,” Mr. Singh said in his letter to Mr. Sharif on Sunday.

Mr. Sharif secured a larger-than-expected victory Saturday, with his Pakistan Muslim League-N party ousting Asif Ali Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party. Despite the threat of violence, it was one of the highest voter turnouts in Pakistan’s history, at about 60%, and marks the first time since the country was established in 1947 that one democratically elected government has succeeded another.

Mr. Sharif, 63 years old, served two terms as prime minister in the 1990s. He was in power when army chief Pervez Musharraf – who overthrew him – backed military operations against Indian troops in Kargil, in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. Mr. Sharif also oversaw a nuclear weapons test in May 1998. India had tested a nuclear device earlier that month.

Mr. Sharif has spoken of improving ties with India, including in trade and travel. One of his top priorities is reviving Pakistan’s economy, which has grown 3% a year over the past five years.

Relations between India and Pakistan are invariably fraught. The neighbors have fought three major wars since 1947 and strains often surface, most recently over the deaths of two prisoners. Sarabjit Singh, a convicted Indian spy, died after he was attacked in a Lahore jail. A day after his death, a Pakistani inmate called Sanaullah Ranjay was assaulted in prison in the northern Indian city of Jammu. He died on May 5.

In his letter Sunday, India’s prime minister said he welcomed Mr. Sharif’s commitment to a relationship between India and Pakistan that is defined by peace, friendship and cooperation.

“My wife joins me in extending to you and Begum Saheba [Mr. Sharif’s spouse] our best wishes. With warm regards,” the letter concludes.

 

[Mr. H.]

That would be nice if those 2 countries got along better.

 

[waltky]

Afghanistan fears more instability from Sharif...

Afghans are wary of Nawaz Sharif - but should they be?
17 May 2013 - Nawaz Sharif's victory in Pakistan's general elections is being seen with some alarm in Afghanistan, where some fear it may mean more instability.

The fact that the Pakistani Taliban held off attacking Mr Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (N), and the comments he made during the election campaign, reinforced the perception in Afghanistan that Nawaz Sharif is a "representative of the Pakistani establishment" which Afghans blame for most of their troubles. Nawaz Sharif has suggested that Pakistan should end its support for the international alliance against terrorism and says he would talk to Pakistani militant groups.

Many Afghans fear he will make peace with the Pakistani Taliban, who will then stop carrying out attacks in Pakistan and focus solely on Afghanistan. "Nawaz Sharif wants peace in Pakistan at the expense of stability in Afghanistan," says Rahmatullah, a resident of the western Afghan province of Herat. "He doesn't want a stable and strong Afghanistan."

History lesson

The roots of these concerns lie in the past. Mr Sharif was very close to Pakistan's former military ruler General Zia-ul-Haq, who was behind organising Afghan resistance to Soviet occupation in the 1980s. Both Gen Zia and Mr Sharif had close links with all seven Afghan mujahideen factions based in Pakistan. This policy resulted in the fall of the Soviet-backed regime in Kabul in 1992. As prime minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif was instrumental in forming the mujahideen government in Peshawar, before sending it over the border to take power in Kabul. Mr Sharif went to Kabul just a day after the mujahideen victory on 28 April 1992, the first and only foreign leader to visit. Many in Afghanistan blame him for dismantling the Afghan security forces and fulfilling the mission of bringing Afghanistan into "Pakistan's sphere of influence". In the run-up to Pakistani elections in October 1993, Nawaz Sharif's party occasionally taunted its rival, the PPP of Benazir Bhutto, by using the slogan "you gave up Dhaka, we took Kabul".

This was a reference to the PPP governing Pakistan when Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) seceded in 1971, while it was under the PML that the Pakistan-based mujahideen leaders were installed in Kabul. The Taliban emerged in Afghanistan when Benazir Bhutto was Pakistan's prime minister. But it was Nawaz Sharif's government that officially recognised the Taliban government in Kabul on 25 May 1997. In addition, as prime minister Mr Sharif openly praised the Taliban and its policies in Afghanistan during his failed attempts to introduce Sharia law in Pakistan through a constitutional amendment in 1998. Although the party was out of power for 14 years, it has kept the relationship alive with some Afghan stakeholders, including the Hezb-e-Islami of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the leader of a powerful mujahideen faction that is now part of the Afghan insurgency and whose representatives are engaged in on-off talks with the government in Kabul.

Future hopes

 

[waltky]

Who gonna be the 'power behind the throne'?...

Can Nawaz Sharif walk the military tightrope?
24 May 2013 - Nawaz Sharif knows better than anyone how powerful Pakistan's military are. He was toppled by them in 1999. So who is really going to be running the country now that he will be prime minister?

In Pakistan's politically savvy drawing-rooms conversations inevitably come round to the question of whether Mr Sharif has learned any lessons from the past. Back in the late 1990s, when he commanded a two-thirds majority in parliament, he sacked one army chief, and nearly sacked another. The second one launched a dramatic counter-coup and Mr Sharif ended up exiled in Saudi Arabia. Months earlier, just when he had been trying to mend fences with arch-rival India, the generals rained on his parade by launching the Kargil conflict in Indian-administered Kashmir. He says they did it behind his back. Mr Sharif is back in power now, with a mandate that is only slightly smaller than the one he was given in the 1990s, but the challenges he faces are much more complicated than just rapprochement with India.

Choppy waters ahead

So how is he likely to fare vis-à-vis the military? Ayesha Siddiqua Agha, an expert on military affairs, says he will at least have a smooth honeymoon period. "Army chief General Kayani is to retire six months later, and the new chief will need a couple of months more to ease into his new job," she says. There is a chance, however, that Mr Sharif will hit choppy waters earlier than that. His greatest challenge lies in reviving an economy that is on the brink of collapse.

Last time he was PM, Nawaz Sharif was toppled in a military coup

But nearly all the options to help a quick revival require fine-tuning of the country's geo-strategic environment, which is shaped and controlled by the military. The foremost pre-requisites for economic growth - peace and security - have become hostage to an increasingly aggressive Pakistani Taliban (TTP). The group is part of a wider militant network that has been destabilising Afghanistan from sanctuaries in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), and which is considered by many to be a "strategic asset" of the Pakistani military.

Mr Sharif has indicated he wants to hold talks with the TTP because, as he puts it, fighting them in the past has not helped curb the menace. A former security chief of Fata, Brig Mehmood Shah, says negotiations have also not worked in the past. He is confident Mr Sharif will discover that soon enough. "The military wants to eliminate militant sanctuaries and has the capacity to do so. All it wants is that its efforts be backed by a wider political consensus and ownership," he says. If this is true, does it signify a paradigm shift?

Ambivalence towards militancy?

 

[Vikrant]

India likely to attend Sharif’s swearing-in

India likely to attend Sharif?s swearing-in | The Hindu

 

[Vikrant]

Pak grabs PM's olive branch, seeks talks

Pak grabs PM's olive branch, seeks talks - The Times of India