Sharif’s Return to Likely Rekindle China Influence in Pakistan
Desperation over economic disaster results in disgraced premier’s reappearance
By: Salman Rafi Sheikh
With the glamorous return last month of the thrice-elected former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, the leader of the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N), after almost four years of exile in London that began with a flight from corruption charges, Pakistan seems set to make a fundamental turn towards China and downsize, if not completely discard, its engagement with the West.
Sharif, who spearheaded the first phase of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) between 2013 and 2017, is seen in China as a pro-development politician whose only ideology is to build infrastructure – and, thus, create jobs – and sell that to its voters to win popular and electoral legitimacy. Whether this strategy, or what is usually dubbed as ‘Nawaz model’, can yield actual growth is another question. What matters for China is his political interest in mega-development projects and his preference for executing them with Chinese help.
Unsurprisingly, Nawaz’s return speech to a large gathering of supporters in Lahore, although he did not share his vision, addressed the issue of rampant economic crisis, inflation and growing debt during the Imran Khan era (2018-2022). Accordingly, as the pioneer of CPEC, he intends to bring Pakistan “back on track” by prioritizing mega-development projects, the biggest face of which is CPEC…