ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday offered ex-premier Imran Khan to join him in a “united effort” to tackle “epochal” rains and flooding that have killed more than 1,100 people since mid-June, affected 33 million, and destroyed homes, businesses, infrastructure and crops.
The unexpected olive branch from Sharif to Khan came as the two leaders are locked in a roiling political battle, with Khan refusing to recognize the government and leading mass rallies to seek early elections since he was ousted in April in a no-confidence vote in parliament. The Sharif-led coalition government says elections will be held as scheduled next year.
Even before his ouster, Khan won a 2018 general election vowing to root out corruption among what he cast as a venal political elite. The former cricketer has for decades viewed veteran politicians like Sharif — and his elder brother Nawaz Sharif, a three-time prime minister convicted on corruption charges but living in self-exile in London — as long overdue for accountability.
In a briefing to international correspondents and editors on Tuesday, Sharif said he had made several offers, including this month during a speech in parliament, to Khan to join hands with his government to tackle the South Asian nation’s myriad of crises, particularly economic woes that have left it with a widening current account deficit and critically low foreign exchange reserves.
“I offered, as you will, an olive branch, a very sincere proposal, a charter of economy … [that] let’s sit down and discuss it, let us make a framework,” Sharif told journalists at the PM Office. “It was a very bitter experience that this offer was absolutely taken as a non-serious thing, which was very unfortunate.”
“Today, even at the cost of repetition, I am making this offer [to Khan] through your cameras … Let us sit down ... to deal with this situation [floods] today and tomorrow, and to see Pakistan comes out of this problem with our united effort, let’s move with unity of thought and action, let’s move in unison. That is the way forward.”
The offer comes as Khan faces a slew of court cases, including on charges of terrorism and contempt of court, that the ex-premier says are politically motivated.
The use of anti-terrorism and sedition laws as the basis of cases against political leaders is not uncommon in Pakistan, where Khan’s government also used them against opponents and critics. Hearing in a contempt of court case against Khan is due to begin tomorrow, Wednesday, and his pre-arrest bail for one week in a terrorism case over a speech expires on September 1.
A terror charge in Pakistan can carry anything from several months to 14 years in prison, the equivalent of a life sentence, and a contempt of court conviction could see Khan disqualified for life from politics because as per Pakistani law, convicted persons cannot hold public office.
The lowering of political temperatures, if Khan were to take up Sharif’s truce offer, would be much needed at a time when more than 15 percent of Pakistan’s 220 million population has been affected by floods and early estimates have put the damage at more than $10 billion. Hundreds of thousands of women, children and men are currently living outdoors without access to food, clean water, shelter or basic health care.
The spectre of food shortages has also risen as much of Pakistan’s crops and farmlands have been wiped away by floods that Sharif at Tuesday’s briefing described as “the worst in the history of Pakistan.”
On Monday, Pakistan Finance Minister Miftah Ismail said the Pakistani government could consider importing vegetables and other food items from neighbor and archrival India to overcome shortages.
The imports may end three years of trade suspension between the nuclear-armed rivals. In 2019, Islamabad banned imports of goods from India after New Delhi revoked the special autonomous status of the portion of the disputed Kashmir valley it governs. India and Pakistan have fought three wars over Kashmir. Both control parts of the region but claim all of it.
But Sharif reiterated that it would be difficult to open trade with India until it reviewed the 2019 move to revoke Kashmir’s special status.
“Even until today I will be very pleased to facilitate and discuss our problems with India, including water, Kashmir,” the Pakistani prime minister said.
But he added, referring to what he called a “genocide” in Indian-administered Kashmir:
“Look what they are doing … is there anything left for us to talk to each other [about]?”
India denies it commits rights abuses against ordinary Kashmiris and says it only targets separatists and militants who launch attacks against the state.
New Delhi accuses Pakistan of funding armed militants, along with separatist groups, in India-controlled part of the region. Islamabad denies the Indian accusation, saying it provides only diplomatic and moral support to the Kashmiri people.
