Nawaz Sharif: If Pakistan is to prosper, we must stop bashing India In his first interview since returning to office, Mr Sharif, calm, deliberate and assured, makes clear that he sees his election victory as a mandate for peace with India. He talks with genuine feeling about the need for reconciliation with Pakistan's oldest enemy. Mr Sharif spoke with genuine feeling about the need for peace with India. "There will be progress and there has to be progress," says Mr Sharif. If we have to prosper, there has to be progress on this. He says: "We didn't have any India-bashing slogans in the elections. We don't believe in such slogans. There have been such slogans in the past - 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago - but not now. In fact, I very clearly spoke about good relations with India even before the elections were happening. He goes on: "I made my position very clear: if we get a mandate, we will make sure we pick up the threads from where we left off in 1999 and then reach out to India, sit with them, resolve all our outstanding issues, including the issue of Kashmir, through peaceful means." In fact, the 63-year-old politician wants to pick up the threads of his last government in almost every respect. That premiership ended when he was thrown out of power and into jail by his army chief, General Pervez Musharraf, in 1999. This bruising downfall lumbered Mr Sharif with the traditional penalty of political failure in Pakistan - a battery of criminal convictions (all overturned), six months behind bars and seven years" exile in London and Saudi Arabia. Having achieved political resurrection by winning the election in May, Mr Sharif might be expected to pose as a new man, wiser and more mature than the politician who was cast out of office. In fact, he does not follow this script. On his telling, Mr Sharif offers continuity not change; after all, he believes his previous governments were success stories. "We did deliver," he says. We were able to meet the expectations of the people to some extent. That is why we were re-elected in 1997 and that is why we have been re-elected in 2013. If I take you back to Nineties, our party came up with very bold reforms in the country, economic reforms. They were really revolutionary reforms. During his first premiership between 1990 and 1993, Mr Sharif privatised Pakistan's banks, insurance companies and key industries. In his mind, he brought the free market not only to his homeland, but to India as well. India was taken aback, frankly. India felt that India must also have same reforms in India as Pakistan," he says. There was tremendous pressure on the Indian government, I know, that India should also copy the reforms that Pakistan has introduced. So you are not a new man - you are the same Nawaz Sharif who ran Pakistan in the Nineties? "I am the same politician who's trying to pick up the threads of where I left off," he replies. And you offer continuity not change? You can call it continuity; you can call it change that still continues and we are now going to make sure that we take it to its logical conclusion. You are carrying on the good work that you did in the Nineties? That was my humble contribution and I will continue to make that humble contribution. We hope that work will also start soon, that we will have a motorway from the northern regions of Pakistan right down to Karachi. Nawaz Sharif with his entourage at his offices at the Prime Minister's residence in Islamabad, Pakistan. Pakistanis who have less than fond memories of Mr Sharif's premierships might recall how he failed to complete a full term (his first stint ended when the president sacked him for alleged corruption). They might marvel at the chutzpah of leader who simply offers more of the same. But, regardless of the baggage he carries, Mr Sharif has the opportunity presented by a clear election victory. What will be his most important economic reform? Mr Sharif replies that when David Cameron rang with his congratulations, he named his "first three priorities" as "number one economy, number two economy, number three economy." 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. 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.