China, India, money woes, US conspiracy claims: the issues keeping Pakistan’s new PM busy

Shehbaz Sharif says he wants to mend ties with Beijing and New Delhi, stabilise the country’s crisis-hit economy and strengthen its democratic system

But analysts say Pakistan’s ‘Mr. Fix-It’ faces an uphill battle amid Kashmir concerns, security worries – and his predecessor’s claims of American meddling

6-MIN READ6-MIN

Pakistan’s new Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif gestures during a guard of honour ceremony in Islamabad on Tuesday. Photo: Pakistan Press Information Department Handout via Reuters

Published: 7:00pm, 17 Apr 2022

Time is not on the side of the new coalition government that took office in Pakistan this week following the chaotic ousting of Imran Khan as prime minister.

With a general election expected to be called by year’s end, Khan’s newly anointed successor, Shehbaz Sharif, has said his immediate priorities are stabilising the country’s shaky economy and fixing its damaged diplomatic relations with “all-weather friend” China, as well as partners in the Middle East and an increasingly hostile West.

He also announced that construction would be sped up on the US$60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) – a flagship project of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative that was first put forward in 2013.

Newly elected Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif addresses Pakistan’s parliament on Monday. Photo: Handout via EPA-EFE

In his acceptance speech to parliament on Monday, Sharif said that the biggest challenge facing his administration would be living up to extraordinarily high public expectations following the no-confidence vote that led to Khan being deposed.

Sharif built a reputation as Pakistan’s Mr. Fix-It in the decade up to 2018, when he led the government of populous Punjab province and was famed for his day-to-day hands-on management of key projects and programmes – often seen dressed in a safari suit, panama hat, and Wellington boots when required.

After 2015, he leveraged his position as younger brother of Nawaz, the then-prime minister under whose watch the CPEC was announced, to channel billions of dollars of investment from the project into Punjab’s infrastructure.

Chinese diplomats were the first to meet Sharif on his first day in office on Tuesday, with Pang Chunxue, Beijing’s charge d’affaires in Islamabad, telling him he was viewed with “great respect and admiration” in China and was seen as a “strong and committed friend”.