Shehbaz Sharif: Responsibilities and challenges
AFTER days of high voltage political drama, the Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi was replaced by his opposition successor Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, the younger brother of Nawaz Sharif, the former 3-time Prime Minister of the country on 11 April 2022.
It was the first time in the history of Pakistan that a premier has been replaced by ‘no confidence motion’ initiated by all opposition parties in combine, under the direction of the apex court, in a situation where the ex-prime minister flatly refused to quit despite knowing the fact that he does not command required majority in the House in a democratic way but as a cricketer did not run away till the end of the game as he said earlier.
Among the opposition leaders, Shehbaz Sharif was the most experienced leader who was first elected to the Provincial Assembly of Punjab in 1988 and to the National Assembly of Pakistan in 1990.
In second time when he was elected for Punjab Assembly in 1993 he was also named Leader of Opposition and only after four years, in 1997 (20 February), became the Chief Minister of Punjab province but in the wake of military coup d’état in 1999 he left Pakistan with family and spent self-exile in Saudi Arabia.
He came to Pakistan in 2007 and after the victory of his party PML N’s in the Assembly election of 2008, he was second time appointed the Chief Minister of Punjab and the trend continued till the election of 2013 until his Party suffered defeat in 2018 general election.
Career as Chief Minister: His whole tenure of office as Chief Minister earned good name and fame for himself as he proved himself highly efficient and competent in comparison to others.
There, he initiated several ambitious projects for the development of infrastructure in all sectors and was nominated President of the Pakistan Muslim League N when his brother Nawaz Sharif was disqualified from holding offices due to Panama Papers case.
In the general election held in 2018 while Imran Khan was elected leader of the majority party/group, Shehbaz Sharif became the Leader of the Opposition.
By the time several legal charges regarding money laundering were levelled against him and he was arrested on 28 September 2020 but came out when granted bail by the Lahore High Court on 14 April 2021.
After experiencing a long period at state level, he joined the politics at the centre stage where he started his career when a ban was imposed on his elder brother, Nawaz Sharif.
There are several groups of people in Pakistan who still liked Shehbaz Sharif but there are some who charged him of cronyism, environment destruction as well as corruption.
However, his all the three tenures as Chief Minister of Punjab was memorable for multi-pronged strategy of development with focus on health, education, agriculture and industrial sectors and launch of crackdown on criminals across the state as well as maintaining law and order.
While his second term of office became disputed due to legal battles in the High Court of Punjab province and the issue of his disqualification was set aside by the apex court of the country which made him able to return to the office in February 2009, his third term of office passed off peacefully as he liked the post of chief ministership most, he retained the post till 27 February 2018 and took active part in 2018 general election of the country.
His visible responsibilities: At the time when he has taken over the responsibility of Prime Minister of Pakistan, his most pressing and dire need of the nation is economic as almost for one last decade the financial position of the country is on decline with no solution of foreign debt and repayment of related responsibilities that it owes to international financial institutions.
It’s a phase of major fiscal and current account deficits where Pakistan is in the trap of foreign debt of over 100 billion US dollar and the nation needs only 14 billion dollar every year to meet its loan liability.
Although the people of Pakistan and Shehbaz’s supporters have full faith in his capability and they believe that he will do all things properly as done in the Province of Punjab in previous years like, competition of Safe City projects, metro lines, network of roads, overhead bridges and underpasses.
Apart from economic, he has also to handle the large and multiple coalition partners who are even contradictory and contrast in policy and perception.
His charges relating to money laundering are no less challenging, pending with the apex court of the country for a long time and may invent any adventure in future.
Challenges ahead: These apart, he has taken over the post at a time when the overall economy of the country is already in deep crisis as it is a developing country with semi-industrial base, stability of the government is considered as top factor for growth of the nation and continuation of good fiscal policies in the larger interest of the people.
Most of the data taken earlier or at the time of last census, 2017, its Gross Domestic Product (GDP), remained around 1758 US dollar and in a worldwide rank it was placed in 172 and with minor improvement in January 2022 it was 6978 US dollar in terms of per capita income with a position of 156th.
The deteriorating condition of nation’s economy is also vital in the light of World Bank’s remarks which revealed several weaknesses of Pakistan’s economy at large.
Among others, the present Prime Minister of Pakistan is hoped to maintain a cordial and good relations with the military establishment.
From the beginning the military had played a decisive role in matters of foreign policy and as he has little knowledge of handling external affairs, it is likely that army will have a final say in affairs of foreign relations, especially with US, India, China and Afghanistan.
Despite all these, in the situation, the Supreme Court of Pakistan has given a relief to all concerned in the country and outside to restore democracy by convening twice the parliament’s session and proceed for ‘no-confidence motion’ which had shielded the fate of Imran Khan and gave an opportunity to Shehbaz Sharif to serve the motherland.
— The writer is presently Professor and Head, Department of Political Science and Dean of Social Sciences at B N Mandal University, Madhepura (Bihar), India.
