Shehbaz Sharif

The decision came after a widely criticized anti-migrant crackdown that started last year forced an estimated 600,000 Afghans to return home.

The China-Pakistan joint statement issued during the visit of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is illuminating, both for what it says – and doesn't say.

It is politics, not economics, that is preventing a wholesale turnaround of Pakistan’s broader trajectory.

But the country’s aggressive posturing against India will make it difficult for the government to take the process forward.

The new government faces many challenges, including a surge in militant attacks, shortages of energy, and an ailing economy.

There is uncertainty over the election date even as the legal and political drama surrounding jailed ex-PM Imran Khan deepens.

No number of IMF packages or foreign bailouts will suffice in keeping the Pakistani economy afloat without the country undergoing a multifaceted structural revamp.

The last year has been been a microcosm of Pakistan’s seven decades of dysfunction, now culminating in ambiguity over the most fundamental of democratic exercises: holding an election. 

“If India and Pakistan keep emotions out of it and approach their problems logically, there is room for advancing the relationship.”

For all the right statements and claims of the unbreakable, iron-clad relationship between Beijing and Islamabad, there was very little substance to Sharif’s trip.

The Sharif family’s political fate hinges on whether they can overcome a split between backers of brothers Nawaz and Shehbaz – and convince supporters their alignment with the military is not a betrayal.