Important elections are held in Pakistan in the new year as relations with India remain strained

Analysts hope that strained ties could be repaired if Nawaz Sharif becomes prime minister for a record fourth time in the general elections in February, absent his main opponent Imran Khan, who is incarcerated in multiple cases. Pakistan-India bilateral relations have been frozen for the fourth year due to the contentious Kashmir issue.

The primary event of the previous year was Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s trip to India in May to attend the ministerial moot of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Goa.

The traditional build-up to the visit was focused on whether or not Bilawal and his Indian colleague S Jaishankar would meet.

However, neither party expressed a willingness for this kind of gathering.

Rather, the two leaders used sharp terminology and innuendos in their formal addresses at the ministerial huddle to disparage one other’s nations.

Many in India took offense to Bilawal’s word choice, particularly when he urged the attendees not to allow terrorism to impede political connections. In his speech at the SCO gathering, Jaishankar emphasized how critical it is to confront the problem of cross-border terrorism.

As a result, the tense relations were not improved by Bilawal’s visit, which was the first by a foreign minister of Pakistan to India in over a decade.

Pakistan terminated economic relations and downgraded diplomatic ties with India after New Delhi revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s special status in August 2019 by repealing Article 370 of the Constitution. Pakistan also expelled its representative from Islamabad.

The Indian Supreme Court’s decision to support the Indian government’s move to abrogate Article 370 of the Constitution in December also sparked strong reactions from Pakistan’s present caretaker administration and political figures in that country.

With 2023 fading into the past, there is a slender glimmer of optimism that the India-Pakistan equation may alter as a result of shifting regional circumstances and internal pressures.

Due to the failure of its gamble in Afghanistan, Pakistan has just found itself in a very advantageous position. The Taliban takeover has horribly backfired, causing Islamabad to reevaluate its choices and posture since the Kabul authorities have refused to sever relations with the terrorists of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, who are in charge of the unending carnage in the nation.

Thousands of Afghans living in illegality have received marching orders as an immediate consequence.

Over 400,000 people have been evicted so far.

Despite complaints and threats from the Taliban administration in neighboring Afghanistan, the directives have not been revoked.

Second, on February 8, 2020, there will be elections. Nawaz Sharif, the country’s three-time prime minister, is expected to win an unprecedented fourth term in office. Sharif returned after a four-year self-exile in the UK.

The 73-year-old Sharif has been exonerated in every corruption prosecution and is accorded the formalities of a prime minister-designate prior to his ascent to office.

Analysts claim that Sharif is a fervent supporter of friendly relations with all of his neighbors, particularly India.

In his speech to his party officials in Lahore on December 7, he made it clear that his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party’s goal included mending diplomatic relations with neighboring countries including Afghanistan, Iran, and India.

“How can you achieve global status when your neighbors are upset with you?” questioned the man.

Sharif, who was eventually removed from office by then-military head Pervez Musharraf for opposing this “misadventure,” had opposed the Kargil war of 1999 and said that this was the appropriate thing to do.

It’s possible that his remarks, “Time has proved us right as far as the Kargil episode is concerned,” were positively welcomed by his Indian audience.

When discussing his past administrations’ achievements, Sharif mentioned strengthening relations with India and asked for support for his approach to that country by asking, “During which tenures did two Indian prime leaders visit Pakistan? Atal Bihari Vajpayee came first, followed by Narendra Modi.

“After his speech in Lahore, a political analyst was reported by the prominent Dawn daily as claiming that Sharif had a track record of strengthening relations with India.

“Nawaz and the establishment have long disagreed on the need to strengthen relations with India. The analyst was reported by the tabloid without identifying himself as saying, “Whenever Nawaz Sharif came to power, he tried to shake hands with India against the wishes of the powers that be.”

He gets along well with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is running for office again next year in the same elections as him.

Their appearance on the national stages of the two nations may reduce friction between them.

In order to concentrate on the Taliban menace, Pakistan would also want to keep its eastern front calm.

Jalil Abbas Gilani, the acting foreign minister, brought up this subject at a news conference after the ruling on Kashmir’s status by the Indian Supreme Court.

He said that Pakistan would want to see peace maintained on the Line of Control when questioned about the decision’s effect on the security situation there.

Imran Khan, a former cricket player who is now a politician, is fighting to stay relevant in politics while he is incarcerated, while Sharif’s homecoming goes smoothly. Despite promises from the courts and the main polling organization, he has claimed that members of his party were singled out, detained, and prevented from submitting candidacy papers for the elections scheduled for February 8.

If Khan is found guilty in the Toshakhana corruption case, he will stay behind bars despite having been granted bail in the Cipher case.

Regarding the economy, financially strapped For the last several years, Pakistan’s economy has been in a free-fall mode, which has put immense strain on the country’s impoverished population in the form of uncontrolled inflation. Pakistan’s faltering economy has forced it to contact other countries in search of financial assistance in the form of loans.

Pakistan was able to prevent a sovereign debt default thanks to a credit deal authorized by the International Monetary Fund in July. Pakistan got USD 1.2 billion from the IMF in July as the first tranche of the USD 3 billion standby agreement (SBA).

Since the Taliban took over in Afghanistan in August 2021, there has also been an increase in bloodshed in Pakistan.

Terrorists and separatists have been attacking Pakistani security personnel all year long. A new terrorist organization that is an associate of the TTP, which is outlawed, called Tehrik-e-Jihad Pakistan (TJP) emerged in the previous year.

The gang carried out many assaults against security personnel, including one of the worst terror strikes against the armed forces in recent memory that took the lives of 23 soldiers in the unrest-plagued region of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa during the second week of December.

About 300 kilometers from Lahore, on November 4, TJP terrorists assaulted the Pakistan Air Force’s Mianwali Training Air Base, causing damage to three grounded aircraft.

A day before, three distinct acts of terror throughout the nation claimed the lives of seventeen troops.

The establishment in Pakistan has declared that it will not back down until the threat of terrorism is eradicated.