After Bhutto's Death, Sharif Steps Forward
Ex-Premier Hopes to Become Unifying Force

By Emily Wax and Imtiaz Ali
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, January 4, 2008

LAHORE, Pakistan, Jan. 3 -- In the polished marble foyer of his mansion, former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif keeps two ferocious-looking stuffed lions. They were purchased in Africa, and they greet visitors with piercing eyes.

Sharif and his trademark lions and tigers are splashed across his campaign billboards throughout Pakistan. In a way, they have become a telling metaphor for a man who was once on the brink of political extinction but who has reemerged as a powerful force in a tense time.

"Pakistan is in a very serious situation. I'm here to do what I can," Sharif said Thursday, sitting in a gold and silk thronelike chair in his lavish country home. "But the country doesn't need a one-man show. Pakistan has become a laughingstock. We need General Musharraf to step down. We need a return to the judges, a return to rule of law, a return to democracy."

In November, after Sharif returned to Pakistan from an eight-year exile, he was largely overshadowed by Benazir Bhutto, whose personal magnetism and storied lineage dominated the political landscape here. Now, a week after Bhutto's assassination, Sharif is the country's most experienced opposition leader and regarded by many as the one to watch.

In light of Bhutto's death, Sharif, 58, who was prime minister when Pakistan's first nuclear bomb was detonated and who once attempted to impose Islamic law, is trying to recast himself from a vilified -- and allegedly corrupt -- figure into a viable leader capable of uniting disparate political and religious parties. His ability to do so is all the more important at a time when political instability and rising Islamic extremism are heightening security concerns not only in this region, but also in Washington.

His party, the Pakistan Muslim League-N, is viewed with caution by U.S. officials, but it has the long-standing support of Pakistanis, who turn out by the thousands to see Sharif.

Newspaper commentators have lately taken to calling Sharif "Nawaz Light," and political pundits say he is playing his cards right. Once an establishment figure, he now condemns President Pervez Musharraf as a military dictator. And although he was once a bitter enemy of Bhutto's, he has made a series of well-calculated moves to appeal to her loyalists.

"He rushed to visit Bhutto at the hospital. He put a wreath on her grave," said Sartaj Aziz, finance minister and later foreign minister under Sharif, who was elected prime minister twice in the 1990s. "He's showing powerful leadership when the country feels at a loss. He's learned a lot in exile."

Sharif is a product of the military. In the mid-1980s, when he was an unknown businessman, he was handpicked as a protege of Mohammed Zia ul-Haq, a Pakistani military dictator who once called Sharif his "son."

It was with the blessing of the military that Sharif became chief minister of the politically important Punjab province in 1985. He eventually came to be seen as a religiously minded alternative to Bhutto, who was progressive and had a more secular outlook.

"The West was obsessed with Benazir, who was beautiful and charming and had the appeal of being a female Muslim leader. But Sharif is more indigenous. He is Pakistan," said Ahsan Iqbal, a spokesman for Sharif's party.

With a stocky build and a reputation for loving large amounts of Pakistani rice and lamb kabobs, Sharif is popular among observant Muslims and is respected for bringing Pakistan the nuclear bomb, a cornerstone of national pride against arch-rival India.

He was first elected prime minister in 1990 on a platform to end corruption. He resigned in July 1993 after constant feuds with Pakistan's president at the time, Ghulam Ishaq Khan, who had accused him of widespread corruption.

In 1997, Sharif was again elected prime minister after his party's landslide victory. His achievements included the building of one of South Asia's longest interstate highways and other development projects.

But it was also during Sharif's second term that he appointed Musharraf as army chief. It proved to be a fateful decision: After further corruption allegations against Sharif and accusations that he had autocratic tendencies, he was overthrown in October 1999 in a bloodless coup led by the military. Musharraf was installed as president.

Musharraf and Sharif have remained bitter enemies since then. In September, Sharif tried to return to Pakistan from Saudi Arabia, where he had been avoiding jail time under a deal he struck with Musharraf to have a criminal conviction set aside. He spent a few hours at the Islamabad airport before Musharraf deported him again. Sharif's recent return to Lahore was met with street festivals and shouts of "The lion is back, the lion is back!"

The Bush administration has been wary of Sharif, who many officials still believe retains close ties to Islamic extremists. But Thursday, Sharif said the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad had contacted him for a meeting -- a sign, he suggested, of his rising popularity.

Elizabeth Colton, the embassy spokeswoman in Islamabad, confirmed that U.S. officials were willing to meet with Sharif, as well as other political leaders in Pakistan.

Pakistani analysts say that American perceptions of Sharif as radical are oversimplified and that his connections to Islamic groups could be leveraged to better tackle the threat of religious extremism in the region.

"He has a flat in London, he got hair plugs to make him look more handsome, he's a serious businessman," said Talat Masood, a retired general and political analyst. "He's not an extremist. That's a total misunderstanding."

In the interview, Sharif suggested President Bush should remember that perceptions change over time and that alliances shift.

"Once, not that long ago, the Americans were supporting Osama bin Laden and the so-called freedom fighters of Afghanistan. Mr. Bush is still supporting Musharraf even though Bhutto was killed on his watch. Terrorism always flourishes under a dictatorship," Sharif said.

Critics say it's unclear to what degree Sharif has changed. They say that the Taliban rose in Afghanistan during his tenure and that his administration inflamed regional tensions by detonating a nuclear weapon in 1998, despite U.S. appeals to hold back.

On Thursday, when asked about mistakes he might have made, Sharif leaned back in his chair and was silent. His eyes serious, he leaned forward again.

"My only mistake was promoting Musharraf," he said with a deep clearing of his throat and then a chuckle. "Talk about a mistake."

Ali reported from Peshawar.