KARACHI: Shehbaz Sharif was chosen by the parliament on Sunday to serve a second term as prime minister of Pakistan.
Shehbaz, the president of his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and younger brother of three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif, defeated rival Omer Ayub Khan of the imprisoned former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party with 201 votes in the National Assembly.
In April 2022 to August 2023, the 72-year-old cancer survivor held the position of premier after a successful parliamentary no-confidence motion against Khan.
Shehbaz was born in Lahore, the capital of Punjab, on September 23, 1951, into a Kashmiri family that spoke Punjabi. Some observers describe Shehbaz as a “tough administrator” who has the “art to govern.”
During his three terms as chief minister of Punjab, the richest and largest province in the nation, from 1997 to 1999, 2008 to 2013, and 2013 to 2018, his administrative prowess was well acknowledged.
His 16-month tenure as premier, meanwhile, did not win over many people. Before receiving a last-minute rescue from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in July of last year, the nation was on the edge of default due to a faltering economy and a rising cost of living issue that had been made worse during his administration. However, his government pointed the finger of the catastrophic economic condition at Khan’s former administration.
Over 12 million Pakistanis have dropped below the poverty line in only the last year, according to a World Bank report released last week. Approximately 40% of the 240 million people who call this country home currently reside below the alarming level.
Childhood
Originating in the Anantnag district of Indian-administered Kashmir, the Sharif family later made Amritsar, in the Indian state of Punjab, their home. This was in the early 1900s.
They eventually moved to Lahore in 1947 after India and Pakistan were split up into two sovereign nations.
The family’s expansive home, dubbed “Jati Umra” after their ancestral hamlet in Amritsar, is situated on the northern suburbs of Lahore.
Mohammad Sharif, Shehbaz’s father, was an industrialist from the upper middle class who established a small plant outside of Lahore and began a steel company.
The second of Sharif’s three sons, Shehbaz, received his early schooling at Lahore’s Saint Anthony’s High School before going on to the esteemed Government College University to receive a Bachelor of Arts degree.
In the early 1970s, Shehbaz joined his family business alongside his older brother Nawaz.
In 1974, former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s contentious nationalisation policy had placed their enterprises under state control. However, in 1977, the Bhutto government was overthrown by a military coup led by then Army Chief Gen. Zia-ul-Haq, and their factories were returned to them.
Shehbaz, a father of four children (two sons and two girls), had three marriages. He has two wives at the moment.
His 1973 marriage to Nusrat Shehbaz was the mother of all of his children.
In the elections held on February 8, Hamza Shahbaz, his eldest son and political heir, was also chosen to represent Lahore in the National Assembly.
Political travels
When martial law was in effect in the nation in the early 1980s, the Sharif family entered politics.
As the youngest finance minister to join the provincial Cabinet, Nawaz was the first member of the family to enter politics, having gained the support of Punjab Governor Gen. Ghulam Jilani at the time.
The Sharifs are mockingly referred to by their political rivals as the “offspring of martial law and Gen. Jilani.”
In 1988, Shehbaz won a seat in the Punjab Assembly, and two years later, in the National Assembly.
In 1993, he was elected to the Punjab Assembly once more, and from then until 1996, he led the opposition.
Although he was originally elected chief minister in 1997, the Nawaz Sharif government was overthrown in a bloodless military coup in October 1999 by then Army Chief Gen. Pervez Musharraf, ending his tenure in office for little over two years.
Nawaz was convicted to life in jail in April 2000 for ordering ground control to deny landing permission to an aeroplane heading for Karachi, so forcing it to depart the nation. The Sharif brothers were tried for hijacking a commercial airliner. Gen. Musharraf, who assumed power in a coup that same day, was one of the people on the aircraft.
Shehbaz and two other defendants were found not guilty.
The Sharif family went into exile in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in 2001 and stayed there for six years as a result of an arrangement mediated by the late Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz.
After the family moved back to Pakistan in 2007, Shehbaz won a second term as Punjab’s chief minister in the general elections of 2008, serving out his five-year tenure in 2013.
He was elected to a third term as chief minister in 2013 and held the position till 2018.
He was chosen to join the National Assembly in 2018 and led the opposition until Imran Khan was removed in April 2022 due to a no-trust vote.
Following Nawaz’s disqualification by the Supreme Court in the wake of the 2016 Panama Papers scandal, he was selected as the PML-N president in 2017.
He gained a reputation as a capable administrator while serving as Punjab’s chief minister, especially for his control over bureaucracy.
One of the modern, developed cities of Pakistan, Lahore, is said to have been founded by Shehbaz.
He is especially respected for having developed the province’s transport and communication networks, even in remote and small towns.
The Sharif family has frequently been charged with corruption. Shehbaz and his two sons have been involved in multiple corruption cases alongside Nawaz.
There were questions after their firms grew throughout their tenures. Nonetheless, they refute the accusations and refer to the incidents as “political victimisation.”
Oriented towards China and Turkey
In contrast to Khan’s chilly relationships with Washington, which he claims is planning his downfall, Sharif has urged for stronger ties with the US, seeing them as vital for Pakistan.
Analysts claim that Shehbaz has a bias in favour of Pakistan’s traditional allies, China and Turkey.
In 2015, senior Sharif signed the $64 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project, which is a component of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
During his last tenure, Shehbaz attempted to build Punjab along the Turkish model.
Numerous Chinese and Turkish companies are working on projects in Punjab that were started by Shehbaz.
Lahore’s major thoroughfares bear the names of former president Abdullah Gul, Istanbul, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Confluence of upcoming difficulties
Analysts note that Sharif will be put to the test during the course of the next five years by a combination of issues, including a faltering economy, growing political instability, and the imminent threat of a terrorism revival.
Expert Shahid Hasan Siddiqui, who works in Karachi, notes that Sharif’s largest task would be to turn around the nation’s horrendously damaged economy.
“The new premier is in for a rough ride. For the first several years at least, we shouldn’t expect a miracle in terms of the economy, Siddiqui told Anadolu.
Siddiqui claims that the next government must negotiate with the IMF for another programme to keep the economy afloat, as Shehbaz himself has previously hinted at.
With the PTI and other parties accusing the polls of being rigged, accusations that the caretaker government and electoral authority refuted, many political observers do not believe that tensions will soon begin to ease.
Former Pakistani ambassador to the US Maleeha Lodhi told Anadolu that “the new government will not be able to focus on fixing the economy without political stability.”
In order to tackle this specific issue, she recommended that the newly formed administration initiate a “reconciliation process.”
“All those elected to parliament need to go through a reconciliation process,” she declared.
With the current spike in terrorism, Mahmood Shah, a Peshawar-based security expert and retired army officer, believes that security would continue to be a big test for the new government.
“To curb the fresh outbreak of terrorism, which is directly affecting the economy and politics, the new government has to adopt a multi-pronged security policy,” Shah told Anadolu.
Since the Afghan Taliban retook control of Kabul in 2021, there has been an increase in terrorist strikes in Pakistan.
