While the much-touted three-day long visit of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi to Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore that ended on Wednesday has ruled the recent media headlines in Pakistan, the very low-key visit of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) supremo Nawaz Sharif to Beijing is shrouded in mystery.
Sharif’s five-day-long visit to China begins on Wednesday.
Being announced as a visit for ‘medical reasons’, Sharif’s favourite port of call has always been London where he self-exiled himself from 2019 to 2023. London was also where the former PM had undergone medical treatment. In that sense, a trip to China for medical treatment doesn’t make much sense.
What is surprising is that his senior party colleagues too did not have much idea about the ongoing visit.
Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper quoted information minister Attaullah Tarar as saying: "I have no idea." Nor did PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb have any. Yet another PML-N minister confirmed to the newspaper about Sharif’s "private" visit to China.
Could it be that the apparent divergent voices within the party are indicative of fault lines in the PML-N even as Nawaz’s younger brother Shehbaz Sharif holds the reins of the government in Islamabad as the PM? This had led to intense speculation on what the visit could be for.
One could be to rein in China’s worry over the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and to assuage apprehensions. The CPEC was Nawaz Sharif’s pet project which he inked with China’s Xi Jinping in 2015. The two leaders had together inked a slew of 51 agreements and MoUs as a part of which China has already invested more than $50 billion.
A mega infrastructural project, the CPEC aims to put China-Pakistan trade onto the fast track as well as to integrate the other countries of the region.
But in the last few years, there have been a series of disturbances in the CPEC area with Baluchi separatist outfits and radical jihadist militants like the Islamic State of Khorasan (IS-K) having mounted attacks on Chinese assets including Chinese workers.
China is understandably not very happy about the developments and the ostensible threats to security. The elder Sharif’s Beijing visit may be to assuage Chinese worries. Or even to seek active assistance from the Chinese to quell these disturbances.
Two, as an architect of the CPEC, Sharif enjoys substantial goodwill in China. With the Pakistani economy in the near doldrums, he may use the visit to meet business heads and companies that could lead to greater Chinese investments in Pakistan.
Three, it could also be about seeking more military aid. Already the China-Pakistan military cooperation is a thriving and prolific one. The PML-N supremo, citing concerns of growing asymmetry with India’s military might, may seek more from the Chinese. A key request may pertain to air defence systems including missiles. This is a field where India has taken remarkable strides in recent times.
Four, former PM Imran Khan, founder of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and inarguably a power centre even though he is being interned in, is seen as being pro-China in his political ideology and strategy while PML-N was seen as being pro-West. With China’s unquestionable rise and growing heft, the elder Sharif may be seeking out a better relationship. After all, China is a next-door neighbour.
