ISLAMABAD: Nawaz Sharif, seen as the front-runner in Pakistan’s election race, said he would not allow militant groups to attack India from his country and would work to improve ties with New Delhi if elected.
“If I become the prime minister I will make sure that the Pakistani soil is not used for any such designs against India,” Nawaz Sharif told CNN-IBN in an interview.
Despite recent strains, India and Pakistan’s relations have improved after nose-diving in 2008 when gunmen killed 166 people in Mumbai in a three-day rampage that India blamed on a Pakistani militant group.
According to opinion polls, Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) is expected to win Saturday’s general election after capitalising on the failure of the outgoing Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) to tackle everything from power cuts to a Taliban insurgency.
Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, who has formed his own party, has become one of Pakistan’s most popular politicians and could be a major partner in a coalition government, analysts say.
Imran was injured when he fell off a mechanical lift raising him onto a stage at a rally on Tuesday. The accident could win Imran some last-minute sympathy votes as he recovers.
The poll comes after a civilian government has for the first time completed a full-five-year term. But whoever wins will inherit enormous problems.
One of them will be managing a difficult relationship with India. The nuclear-armed neighbours have fought three wars since the partition of British-ruled India in 1947. India has for years accused Pakistan of supporting militants and sending them in to the Indian-held Kashmir to fight Indian forces. Pakistan denies arming the militants saying it only offers moral support to the people of Muslim-majority Kashmir.
Although the two countries began a peace process in 2004, they remain deeply suspicious of each other. Their antagonism has spilled over into Afghanistan where they compete for influence and where they have tended to support rival Afghan forces.
Strategic ally the United States wants Pakistan and India to bury their differences so Pakistan can focus on helping to stabilise Afghanistan before most NATO combat troops leave by the end of 2014.
Nawaz Sharif, who was prime minister twice in the 1990s, said it was time to improve ties between New Delhi and Islamabad. “We have issues of course which need to be resolved and I think I can quote you a lot of examples where rivals or people opposed to each other, countries opposed to each other have resolved much difficult problems than we have,” he said.
The PML-N chief, who has been critical of military meddling in civilian affairs, said he would call for a joint investigation of whether Pakistani intelligence agencies played any role in the Mumbai attack.
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