ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Nawaz Sharif was elected Pakistan's prime minister Wednesday, taking the reins of a country burdened by an entrenched insurgency, rampant corruption and a power-starved economy.
Parliament, dominated by Sharif's party after it trounced parties headed by President Asif Ali Zardari and former cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan in national elections last month, overwhelmingly voted for Sharif. Afterward in his first speech to lawmakers, Sharif vowed to tackle Pakistan's "jungle of problems."
"The nation knows that our economy is in extremely poor condition," Sharif told parliament after receiving 244 votes in the 342-seat assembly. "We have little in financial resources. We have to pay back billions of rupees of debt. But I ensure the nation that we will struggle to change the country's destiny."
Sharif pledged to reshape Pakistan into a nation that would no longer be known for "extremism, insecurity, corruption, poverty and dictatorship — but a Pakistan known for good governance, development, prosperity and respect within the international community."
Unlike the previous ruling party, Zardari's Pakistan People's Party, Sharif's team received a convincing mandate in the May 11 elections and did not need to cobble together a coalition government to take power. Sharif enjoys a comfortable majority in parliament, and also oversees governance in Punjab, the country's wealthiest and most populous province.
Zardari's support during his five-year term as president, which ends in September, was much more diluted, and he was forced to rely on patronage politics to keep his ruling coalition in place. That forced him to focus more on political survival than on the country's most troubling ailments, including power blackouts that in some cities last up to 19 hours.
Pakistanis hope Sharif's industrialist background will help him put the economy back on track. A former steel baron and one of Pakistan's wealthiest man, Sharif, 63, is widely viewed as pro-business and a proponent of forging stronger economic ties with neighboring India, the country's nuclear archrival but also one of the world's leading emerging markets.
Sharif's selection marks an unprecedented third term as the country's prime minister. He served from 1990 to 1993 and again from 1997 to 1999, when the army chief at the time, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, ousted him from power. Sharif lived in exile in Saudi Arabia until he returned in 2007. His party won the Punjab provincial assembly elections in 2008 and garnered enough seats in parliament to become the main opposition rival to Zardari's party.
One of Sharif's biggest challenges will be the relationship he carves with the United States. Intense anti-American sentiment courses through every strata of Pakistani society, but Sharif's team also knows it cannot afford to alienate Washington, which has channeled billions of dollars in aid to Pakistan and wields strong influence with international lenders such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
The relationship was tested last week when the U.S. launched a drone strike that killed the Pakistani Taliban's No. 2 leader, Waliur Rehman, in the North Waziristan tribal region along the Afghan border. While the Pakistani Taliban is the source of suicide bombings and terror attacks that have killed thousands of civilians in recent years, Pakistanis strongly oppose drone strikes as a blatant encroachment on their country's sovereignty. After Rehman was killed, Sharif issued a statement expressing "serious concern and deep disappointment" with the airstrike.
On Wednesday, he told parliament that "drone attacks need to stop now. We respect the sovereignty of others, and expect others to also respect our sovereignty." However, he did not outline what steps his administration would take if drone attacks continue.
In recent weeks, his aides have stressed that Sharif will rely on negotiations to attempt to persuade Washington to abandon the tactic.
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Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNESVP8UBEzpuaPyjQs_PM1IGvIPMQ&url=http://www.latimes.com/news/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-pakistan-sharif-prime-minister-20130605,0,7751464.story
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