Election of cricket star-turned-politician, Imran Khan, as the prime minister of Pakistan marks a new development in Pakistani politics. Khan, whose party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), swept the general elections last month, was elected 22nd prime minister by Pakistan’s parliament on Friday.  Khan has vowed to bring an era of accountability and prosperity for his country and has promised to improve relations with India, the largest economy in South Asia. “Before everything else, we have to make sure there is accountability,” Khan has announced. He rose to power after raising a campaign against corruption and government mismanagement continuously for the last 22 years, since he joined politics in 1996. Politics of Pakistan has long been bedevilled by instability, corruption, fractious relation with India, conflict, terrorism, lack of speedy development, among others. Besides, the new prime minister inherits a country with ballooning fiscal and trade deficits, increasing public debt and dwindling foreign reserves. We hope and wish that Prime Minister Khan will be able to overcome all these challenges during his tenure and will be able to fulfil his promises.

The rise of PTI, and thereby Khan himself, marks a new era in Pakistan in that the country has long been ruled by Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) or the country’s powerful military. With the victory, Khan has proved that with the right agenda and with its continuous advocacy a political party and its leader can rise to power through democratic means.  But even more than that, for a country like Nepal, the founding member of SAARC and its chair, Khan’s election is important in the context of current state of impasse in regional cooperation body. The SAARC process has largely stuck in rivalry between the two nuclear states of the region—India and Pakistan. 

When 18th Summit was successfully held in Kathmandu in November, 2014, it had left the impression that SAARC process was back on track.  The cordial handshake between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart of the time Nawaz Sharif had raised hope that the two countries will eventually stand on the same page on SAARC. This was not meant to be. The 19th Summit that was to take place in Pakistan in 2016 was stalled after India accused Pakistan of Uri terrorist attack. The two countries experienced one of the lowest points in their bilateral relations. Since then, the two countries have not been able to iron out their differences.  Imran Khan has promised to break this impasse, for he has already vowed to improve relations with India and after his victory he has also held talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Thus while his people are waiting for Khan to deliver on promises of development and good governance, people in SAARC also want to see him take active role to revive SAARC process. If he can take the initiative for this and reset ties with India, he will be appreciated across the region. On that note, we extend congratulations to the new prime minister of Pakistan.