The Sharif brothers — fourth time’s the charm?

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The siblings out of Punjab appeared a spent force five years ago but have successfully turned the tables on their rivals.

Having already been prime minister more times than any other Pakistani politician, but never for a full term, Nawaz Sharif hopes to break his unlucky streak the fourth time around.

Nawaz and Shehbaz were born in 1949 and 1950, respectively, and have been prominent faces in politics since the 1980s.

Nawaz, who joined the family business House of Ittefaq (Ittefaq Group) — an industrial conglomerate with interests in sugar, steel, and textiles after completing his studies — began his political career as Punjab’s finance minister during General Ziaul Haq’s regime.

He was elected as the province’s chief minister first in 1985 and re-elected after the end of martial law in 1988. After Haq’s death in August of that year, the Pakistan Muslim League, which Nawaz was part of, split into two factions. He took charge of PML, which later came to be known as PML-N.

Meanwhile, Shehbaz was elected as a member of the Punjab Assembly in 1988.

In the 1990 elections, Nawaz was elected prime minister for the first time, while Shehbaz became an MNA. However, Nawaz’s first stint in office ended prematurely after then-president Ghulam Ishaq Khan dissolved the NA in 1993, which the PML-N supremo successfully challenged in the Supreme Court.

After returning to power, Nawaz called for fresh elections but lost to PPP’s Benazir Bhutto. This time around, both brothers took on important roles in the opposition, Nawaz was the leader of the opposition in the NA while Shehbaz held the same position in the Punjab Assembly.

In 1997, elections were held once again, and Nawaz became prime minister for the second time while the younger Sharif became Punjab’s chief minister. But as Nawaz’s relations with the military dwindled in 1999, he attempted to remove then-chief of army staff General Pervez Musharraf, which ended in a military coup.

Nawaz was tried in an Anti-Terrorism Court for “kidnapping, attempted murder, hijacking, terrorism, and corruption” and was handed a life sentence.

Under an agreement facilitated by Saudi Arabia, the Sharif brothers were exiled from the country for the next 10 years. They returned in 2007 and contested the general elections the next year, forming a coalition government with the PPP at the Centre, and Shehbaz became Punjab CM for the second time.

convicted him in the Panama Papers case in 2017 and disqualified him from holding any public office. After his removal as the PML-N head in 2018, Shehbaz took on the mantle of acting president, while Nawaz was elected the party’s “Quaid (leader) for life”.

That same year, the SC ruled that disqualification handed down under Article 62 (1)(f) of the Constitution — the same provision under which Nawaz was disqualified — was for life.

It seemed the curtain had fallen on Nawaz’s political career; he was later also convicted in the Avenfield and Al-Azizia Steel Mills references by two separate courts and imprisoned in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail along with his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Mohammad Safdar.

While all this was happening, Shehbaz contested the 2018 elections and joined the NA again. He became the PML-N and other parties’ candidate for the PM’s office but lost the election to PTI’s Imran Khan. Subsequently, he became the leader of the opposition in the lower house of parliament.

While serving his imprisonment, Nawaz was shifted to hospital multiple times for various ailments. In 2019, while in the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) custody in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case, Nawaz was again rushed to the hospital after his personal physician raised an alarm about his deteriorating health.

Nawaz, who also experienced a “minor heart attack” at the hospital, was subsequently granted bail by the Lahore High Court on medical grounds in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case, on a petition filed by Shehbaz.

Days later, the Islamabad High Court also granted bail to the former prime minister for eight weeks, suspending his seven-year sentence in the Al-Azizia case, also on medical grounds. The elder Sharif then left for London via an air ambulance, where he stayed in self-exile for the next four years.

Back in Pakistan, Shehbaz was also facing multiple cases, including the Ashiana-i-Iqbal Housing scheme case and a money laundering reference by the NAB, in which he also spent seven months in jail before being granted bail by the LHC.

‘Vote ko izzat do’ (honour the vote) — Nawaz addressed these virtually while Maryam led them.

As then-prime minister Imran Khan’s relations with the military nosedived and the country’s economic situation worsened, the PML-N saw an opportunity to be in the spotlight again. Nawaz toned down his outbursts and the PML-N joined a coalition of parties to form the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), which eventually succeeded in removing Imran from office through a no-confidence vote. Subsequently, Shehbaz was elected as the 23rd prime minister of Pakistan on April 11, 2022.

Shehbaz’s tenure was beset by multiple challenges — rising concerns of default, unprecedented inflation, and uncertainty about an agreement with the International Monetary Fund, etc. Once seen as a competent administrator, as the premier, Shehbaz’s government had to take widely unpopular decisions, including lifting subsidies and massively increasing prices of fuel and electricity. He later claimed the PML-N had sacrificed its social capital to save the country.

On August 13, Shehbaz announced he was handing over responsibility for running the country to the caretaker government.

As Nawaz returned to Pakistan on October 21 to lead the PML-N’s election campaign, Shehbaz once again took the backseat. In recent months, Shehbaz was acquitted in all cases, while Nawaz’s appeals against the verdicts in the Avenfield and Al-Azizia references were also successful.

On January 8, the SC quashed lifetime disqualification for lawmakers under Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution, which cleared the final hurdle for Nawaz. The swift acquittals led to other parties dubbing Nawaz the establishment’s ‘ladla’ (blue-eyed boy), with PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari saying he was trying to “get selected” as prime minister for the fourth time.

accused the security establishment of being behind his ouster, his younger brother kept himself distant.
Both brothers have emphasized on economic growth and developing infrastructure. During their respective tenures, the government laid down a network of roads, and the Metro Bus projects are considered one of Shehbaz’s biggest achievements.
Both Nawaz and Shehbaz have been ardent supporters of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), with the former calling it “the way of hope and future of our region”.
Nawaz has not just criticised the security establishment for his ouster from office but also the judiciary, accusing it of facilitating dictators and calling for references to be filed against three SC judges, including former chief justice Umar Ata Bandial.
Both party leaders have urged better ties with neighbours, particularly India. During Nawaz’s tenure, Indian PM Narendra Modi made a surprise visit to Pakistan, the first such visit in over a decade.