Appeasment or Intelligence? Nawaz Sharif Takes Indian Bashing and Pakistan’s Prosperity as Synonymous

As a businessman in his own right, this should be his strongest subject — but he is not wholly convincing. Mr Sharif offers a long disquisition on how he wants foreign investors, including British companies, to cure Pakistan’s endemic power cuts by building new generating capacity, using the hydro-electric potential of the country’s great rivers.

Yet Pakistan is a place where dodging energy bills is pursued with the same diligence as tax evasion. Less than 0.5 per cent of the population pays any tax; fabulously rich citizens, including politicians, brazenly avoid contributing to the national treasury. British taxpayers, by contrast, will give £446 million to Pakistan as UK aid in 2015.

Fixing tax collection is not a top priority for Mr Sharif. “I have not yet discussed this matter because, you see, these are very initial days,” he says.

“We will have to lower the taxes in the country, the income tax, corporate tax and all the taxes.”

He adds: “There is a lot of leakage in our taxes, it is said that it’s somewhere between 500 and 1,000 billion rupees (£3 billion to £6 billion).”

Some people might be surprised you haven’t discussed this problem more than two months after taking office? “It’s not easy to plug this leakage,” replies the prime minister. “We are in the process of doing that. I think this exercise will take some time. We’ve been just been in office for eight to nine weeks. We are very conscious of this problem,” he says, adding that he is most grateful for British aid.

But Mr Sharif acknowledges that security is essential for economic success. Pakistan’s struggle against radical Islamists, including the Taliban and a host of other extremists, has claimed more lives here than anywhere else in the world. “We are fighting all these elements because look at what they’ve done in different parts of the country,” says Mr Sharif. “More than 40,000 people have lost their lives in this battle against terror.”

His government will produce a new national security strategy in the next “few weeks”, he says, and the emphasis will shift away from force and towards negotiation with the Taliban.

“Of course we’re fighting each other,” he says. “I believe that there may be no harm in exploring the other option of having dialogue with them if they’re at all serious, and if we find them serious enough — and if we think that talks can yield positive results.”

Mr Sharif adds: “Britain had to talk to the IRA and resolve the problem and so to explore this option, I think, is not a bad idea.”

As for Pakistan’s tortured relations with America, he describes the drone campaign on the Afghan frontier as the No 1 “irritant”, adding: “The drones are counter-productive, they are violating our sovereignty and we must respect each other’s territorial sovereignty and if the drones are challenging our sovereignty this is not a fair thing.” Drone strikes might indeed end on Mr Sharif’s watch, if only because America has eliminated almost every target.

The good news is that Mr Sharif is the first prime minister in Pakistan’s history to take over from an elected government that lasted a full term. Today, the country is ruled by democratic politicians according to the constitution, not sinister generals.

If Mr Sharif achieves peace with India and a settlement with the Taliban — two monumental ifs — he could yet be a transforming leader. He seems aware of the burden of responsibility. “I have to make sure we do the right things,” he says. “We have to make sure we tread the right path, pursue the right policies — and not make any mistakes.”

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