Mr. Sharif, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal after the vote, said he foresaw no new problems with the country's powerful military establishment, saying that the 1999 coup against him was the personal initiative of then-army chief Gen.
In the struggle to pull Pakistan from economic morass and solidify its fragile democracy, Mr. Sharif is calculating that a bold opening to New Delhi could jump-start the economy and weaken the military establishment that ousted him in a coup in 1999, and that still retains formidable authority.