Nawaz Sharif landed in a chartered plane at Islamabad airport on Saturday (Reuters)
Lahore, Pakistan:
Pakistan’s three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday launched his party’s campaign for next year’s elections after returning home from four years of self-imposed exile in London, vowing to tackle record inflation.
“I want to serve this nation,” the 73-year-old politician said in his address to thousands of his supporters in his eastern hometown of Lahore.
“My only wish is to see this nation prosper,” he said after comparing current prices for essential goods with his last term before being ousted in 2017.
He pledged to work on economic recovery without making plans, saying: “We will keep inflation under control.”
He previously landed in a chartered plane at Islamabad airport, where he signed and appealed the convictions for which he was jailed before leaving the country in 2019.
Mr Sharif has not set foot in Pakistan since he left for London in 2019 to receive medical treatment while serving a 14-year prison sentence for corruption. His convictions remain in effect, but a court on Thursday banned authorities from arresting him until Tuesday, when he is due to appear in court.
Although his convictions prevent him from running for or holding public office, his legal team says he plans to appeal and his party says he wants to become prime minister for a fourth time.
Sharif’s biggest challenge will be to win back support from his main rival, Khan, who remains popular despite being in prison after his ouster from the premiership in 2022.
Mr Khan is also disqualified from the election due to his corruption conviction in August, which he has appealed.
Economic growth
Nuclear-armed Pakistan, a country of 241 million, is reeling from an economic crisis that worsened during the 16-month rule of Nawaz Sharif’s younger brother, Shehbaz Sharif, who led a coalition government after Mr. Khan’s ouster.
The elder Sharif has a track record of pursuing economic growth and development. When he was ousted as prime minister in 2017, Pakistan’s growth rate was 5.8% and inflation around 4%. In September, inflation was over 31% on an annual basis and growth is expected to be less than 2% this financial year.
“Things have deteriorated so much that people have to choose between paying their electricity bills or feeding their children,” the elder Sharif told the meeting in Lahore. “It has become impossible for people to pay bills. People are committing suicide.”
The rising cost of living has put many Pakistanis under severe pressure after the younger Sharif’s coalition government had to agree to tough fiscal adjustments to resume financing from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which suspended payments after Mr Khan’s last days had scuttled an agreement in the country. office.
“Inflation has cost me and my family financially. I have closed my shop due to losses,” Raheel Sarwar, 40, said at the meeting.
Nawaz Sharif has said he was removed from government at the behest of the powerful military after falling out with top generals who play an outsized role in Pakistani politics.
He says the military subsequently supported Khan in the 2018 general election. Mr Khan and the military deny this.
The military and Khan fell out in 2022, and in recent months they have been locked in a nail-biting confrontation that has provided some political space for Mr Sharif.
The army denies that it interferes in politics.
“An evergreen rule in Pakistani politics is that your chances of taking power are always better if you are in the military’s good books,” said Michael Kugelman, director of the Wilson Center’s South Asia Institute.
“Throughout his long political career, Mr Sharif’s relationship with the military top brass has been both hot and cold. It is now at a relatively cordial stage and he will benefit politically from it.”
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