Sharif's win sparks hope for Pakistan-India ties

WAGAH, Pakistan (AP) — Over a decade ago, the man now set to become Pakistan's next prime minister stood at this border crossing with archenemy India to inaugurate a "friendship" bus service connecting the two countries as cheering supporters waved flags and tossed rose petals.

There is widespread hope on both sides of the border that Nawaz Sharif will take similarly bold steps to improve relations with India following his election victory over the weekend, thus reducing the chance of a fourth major war between the nuclear-armed foes.

The reason for this optimism is not only his track record of reaching out to India the last time he was prime minister — until the effort was doomed by Pakistan's powerful army — but also his commitment to turning around Pakistan's stuttering economy. Closer ties with India are seen as critical because of the potential for much greater trade between the two countries.

Reducing the threat from India could also help the 63-year-old Sharif accomplish another unspoken goal, reducing the clout of the Pakistani army, which has long used the potential for armed conflict to justify a huge defense budget.

But the army, which sabotaged Sharif's previous peace efforts in 1999 by secretly sending troops into India and eventually toppling him in a coup, could hit back. It may do so if it feels its interests are being threatened or the country is moving too quickly on sensitive issues with India like the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.

"We will pick up the threads from where we left in 1999," Sharif told reporters Monday at his palatial estate near the eastern city of Lahore. "That is the roadmap that I have for improvement of relations between Pakistan and India."

Another potential spoiler is the Pakistan-based Islamic militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which carried out an attack on the Indian city of Mumbai in 2008 that killed over 160 people. The attack followed efforts by Pakistan's newly elected government to improve ties with majority Hindu India.

India's political leaders and media have hailed Sharif's victory. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sent Sharif a message the day after the May 11 election saying the people of India "welcome your publicly articulated commitment to a relationship between India and Pakistan that is defined by peace, friendship and cooperation." Sharif responded to the goodwill by saying he would be pleased if Singh attended his inauguration.

But India has been frustrated by Pakistan's failure to crack down on Lashkar-e-Taiba, which has strong historical links with Pakistani intelligence. That frustration could grow with Sharif since he has also shown no inclination to target the group, which is based in his party's stronghold of Punjab province. The two-time prime minister is also seen as more devoutly religious and close to hardline Islamic parties than the outgoing government is.

Sharif sought to temper concerns Monday when an Indian journalist asked him about the Mumbai attack, saying "we will ensure there is no repeat of any such incident ever again."

The Lashkar-e-Taiba founder who is believed to have masterminded the attack, Hafiz Saeed, remains free in Lahore, despite a $10 million reward offered by the U.S. for his arrest and conviction. A trial of seven Pakistani men suspected of involvement in the Mumbai attack has also made little progress.

Even if Sharif wanted to target Lashkar-e-Taiba, he could run up against Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency, which helped form the group to put pressure on India over Kashmir, which is divided between the two countries but claimed in its entirety by both.

Kashmir has sparked two of the three major wars fought between Pakistan and India since they were carved out of British India in 1947. The Pakistani army used militant proxies to fight in Kashmir for years, and is accused of still doing so despite its denials.

Sharif discovered the danger of crossing the army in 1999. He began the year by inaugurating the "friendship" bus service at the Wagah border near Lahore in February. The Indian prime minister at the time, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, rode the first bus across the border to meet Sharif, who reminisced about the day in his meeting with reporters Monday.

"We were very happy on this visit," said Sharif. "It was a defining moment in Indo-Pak relations."

Two days later, the leaders signed a landmark agreement known as the Lahore Declaration that sought to avoid nuclear conflict.

But the goodwill didn't last long. In May 1999, the Pakistani army chief at the time, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, quietly sent soldiers into an area of Indian-held Kashmir called Kargil, sparking a conflict that cost hundreds of lives and could have led to nuclear war. Sharif said the army acted without his knowledge. Five months later, Musharraf toppled Sharif in a coup and sent him into exile in Saudi Arabia, not allowing him to return until 2007.

Hostility in the army toward India remains strong, but the current chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, is believed to have supported efforts over the past 18 months to improve trade relations given the poor state of Pakistan's economy. Trade between the two countries is about $2 billion dollars per year, and many experts believe that amount could increase multiple times with better ties.

Pakistan announced in 2011 that it would grant India most favored nation trading status, something India did in 1996. But domestic pressure from businesses worried about competition has prevented the government from following through.

Sharif, the son of a wealthy industrialist whose party is considered pro-business, will be watched closely to see if he moves quickly on the issue, said Khurram Husain, a freelance business journalist in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi.

"The faster he does it after coming into power, the more he shows the other side we are serious," Husain said.

Another area where Sharif could work to improve economic ties is by trying to open more border crossings between the two countries, Husain said, noting that Wagah is currently the only crossing for cargo.

The Wagah crossing is also the site of a colorful border closing ceremony each day attended by hundreds of people on both sides, who watch Pakistani and Indian soldiers try to outmarch each other by throwing their legs high in the air to show their rivals the bottom of their boot — a grave insult in this part of the world.

Zaheer Ahmed, who was headed to the border ceremony with his young son, said he was optimistic that relations with India would improve following Sharif's victory.

"Nawaz is a businessman, so I believe he will definitely improve trade with India, which would help both countries," said Ahmed. "An increase in trade would also bring more people-to-people contact, which would make Pakistan's relations with India friendlier."

Despite the optimism, an editorial in the Hindustan Times in India said the country should not expect a Kashmir settlement or a crackdown on Lashkar-e-Taiba in the coming months.

"What it can hope for is a government that will address the structural failures of the Pakistani economy, a government that will try and strengthen civilian institutions at the expense of the army; and a government that will understand that cutting dependence on the United States and China is only possible if Pakistan has a modus vivendi with India," it said.

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Associated Press writers Rebecca Santana and Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Asif Shahzad and Zaheer Babar in Lahore and Ashok Sharma in New Delhi contributed to this report.

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Filipino sultan's quest sparks crisis in Malaysia

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Unlike many other Muslim royalties basking in grand palaces and opulent lifestyles, Sultan Jamalul Kiram III's kingdom sits in a rundown two-story house in a poor Islamic community in Manila, the only hint of power and glory the title attached to his name.

"I'm the poorest sultan in the world," the ailing Kiram, 74, told The Associated Press in an interview in his residence in Maharlika village in the Philippine capital.

Although largely forgotten and dismissed as a vestige from a bygone era, Kiram's sultanate, once based in the southern province of Sulu, has sparked the biggest security crisis in Malaysia and the Philippines in decades -- early last month, he sent his younger brother with about 200 followers, dozens of them armed, by boat from southern Philippines to a village in Sabah state in neighboring Malaysia to claim the land the sultanate insists belongs to them.

A stunned Malaysia, which runs the frontier resource-rich region of timberlands and palm oil plantations as its second-largest federal state, poured in elite police and army troops and called in airstrikes to quell what it saw as an armed intrusion.

After weeks of sporadic clashes that killed 19 intruders and eight policemen, troops launched a full-scale assault Tuesday, codenamed "Operation Sovereign," but failed to account for most of the Filipinos, who according to the Kiram family were unhurt.

Malaysian forces shot and possibly killed one of the men, who appear to be trying to escape the area, police said. Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said later Wednesday that security forces combing the area found 12 bodies. However, it was not clear if they died in Tuesday's strike or in the previous weeks of clashes.

The crisis has tested the neighbors' friendly ties and hit the leaders of both nations at a delicate time politically.

The Kirams claim Sabah has belonged to their sultanate for centuries and was only leased to Malaysia, which they say pays them a paltry annual rent of 5,300 Malaysian ringgit ($1,708). Malaysian officials contend the payments are part of an arrangement under which the sultanate has ceded the 74,000 square kilometers (28,000 square miles) of Sabah territory to their country.

Philippine presidents have relegated the volatile feud to the backburner despite efforts by the Kirams to put it back to the national agenda. The Feb. 9 Sabah expedition by the sultan's younger brother, Agbimuddin Kiram, and the ensuing violence have resurrected the long-dormant issue with the murky history beyond anybody's expectations.

One big obstacle for the Philippines is a number of the Kiram heirs, all claiming to be the rightful sultan. That put the government in a quandary on who to deal with for the Sabah claim to be pursued, historian Manolo Quezon IIII said.

Overrun by history, the Kirams carry royal titles and nothing much else.

"When I was a child, I thought 'princess' was just my name because when you're a child, your idea of being a princess is one with a crown, a palace, a carriage," said Jacel Kiram, a 35-year-old daughter of the sultan, who is regarded a princess.

At his Maharlika village home, the sultan, who has failed kidneys and a heart ailment, struggled with slurred speech to proudly recount the saga of his clan's empire based in the Sulu archipelago in the southern Philippines. Chinese and European leaders, he said, once sent vassals to pay homage to his powerful forebears. The Sulu sultanate, which emerged in the 1400s, preceded both the Philippine republic and Malaysia by centuries.

The exploits of the sultanate's native Tausug warriors were so legendary, the Brunei sultan at the time sought their help in putting down a rebellion in the 1600-1700s. When the uprising was crushed, the Brunei sultan handed over Sabah — then part of Brunei — to his Sulu counterpart as a gift of gratitude.

A Filipino sultan later leased Sabah to a British colonial-era company. The territory was later annexed by Britain. In 1963, six years after colonial Malaya gained independence, Sabah voted to join the new Malaysia.

The Sulu sultanate had steadily declined through the centuries, its power passed on to a succession of leaders and heirs. Jamalul Kiram III is the 33rd sultan and a symbolic leader with followers in Sulu and nearby southern provinces, which are among the country's poorest and are troubled by Muslim rebels, al-Qaida-linked extremists and outlaws.

Born in Sulu's far-flung Maimbung town in 1938, Kiram is a beloved leader who in his youth turned to dance and singing and played sports, including his favorite, tennis. He once worked as a disc jockey in a Jolo radio station. He took up law but failed to take the bar exams when he joined a prominent cultural dance group in the 1960s, according to his wife, Fatima Celia.

He also ran for senator in 2007, backed by former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo — a tacit recognition of his sultanate leadership — but lost, leaving his family in debt due to the high campaign expenses, she said.

Last year, the sultan was diagnosed with failed kidneys and began to receive dialysis treatment, causing family members to miss out on monthly payments for their house, which they nearly lost had friends not helped out, Celia said.

Since then, Kiram has mostly been sidelined to his bedroom, which resembles a hospital unit with two oxygen tanks and serves as an office where he met visitors and followers seeking all sorts of help.

In his younger years, Kiram said he traveled often to Sabah. "It's really very rich," he said of Sabah. "When I'm in Sabah, I feel at home."

Sabah and Sulu are separated by a narrow strip of the Sulu Sea that at its shortest span can be traversed by boat in 30 minutes. The two provinces have shared traditional ties, and people, who are of the same ethnic stock, frequently travel back and forth.

Some 800,000 Filipinos, mostly Muslims, have settled in Sabah over the years to seek work and stability.

Although tensions between the two communities are not uncommon, it is feared that the Kiram's claims and the violence over the past week will sour relations further and could lead to retaliation against the long-staying Filipino settlers.

It was his decrepit sultanate's inability to help out Filipino followers, who are seeking work and greener pastures, that he said prompted him to allow his brother to lead a first batch of settlers to relocate in a village in Sabah's coastal district of Lahad Datu, the event that triggered the three-week deadly standoff.

Worried about straining relations with affluent Malaysia, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III has walked a delicate tightrope, careful to avoid a collision course with Malaysia and at the same time reach out to the Kirams, who accused him of mishandling the crisis and siding with Malaysia. The Sabah standoff erupted as Aquino was grappling with a separate rift with China over contested South China Sea territories.

Malaysia has also brokered peace talks between Manila and the largest Muslim rebel group in the southern Philippines. Both countries are founding members of an influential regional bloc, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

In Malaysia, activists have called for tougher border security and immigration policies in Sabah, presenting a major political challenge to Prime Minister Najib Razak's ruling coalition, which faces general elections that must be held by the end of June.

James Chin, political science lecturer with Monash University in Malaysia, said that the crisis could spell trouble for Najib if the Filipino community in Sabah and Sarawak states, many who have assimilated into Malaysian society and hold identity cards, vote against his ruling coalition.

Sabah and Sarawak on Borneo jointly account for a quarter of parliamentary seats and are key to a victory for Najib's coalition.

The Kirams said the sultanate wanted the Philippine government to pursue their claim to Sabah, but successive presidents have ignored their plea.

Many stories of poor Filipinos illtreated by Malaysian authorities in Sabah provided the final straw, Kiram's wife said.

"It's good if they were placed in jail," she said. "The problem is they are caned, they are punished and then deported ... we couldn't do anything."

The sultan said his followers being hunted in Sabah were fighting for their rights and honor, something profoundly important among his followers. The Malaysians could wipe them out but the problem won't go away, his wife said.

"They would be replaced by others and generations more to come," she said.

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Yoong contributed from Kuala Lumpur. Associated Press writer Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur also contributed to this report.

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China's first lady sparks homegrown fashion frenzy

BEIJING (AP) — New Chinese first lady Peng Liyuan's choice of attire has sparked a flurry of excitement over an independent homegrown label, an unusual phenomenon in a country where political figures are more frumpy than fashionable and wives usually shy away from the spotlight.

Images of Peng, 50, stepping off a plane arm-in-arm with her husband President Xi Jinping in Moscow on Friday have circulated widely on the Chinese Internet, prompting praise of her style as understated and sophisticated.

Eagle-eyed fashion-savvy bloggers identified the leather handbag she carried and smart, double-breasted black trench coat she wore as items designed by Guangzhou-based label Exception. The brand has been described as one of China's leading independent labels whose simple but unique designs stand out in an industry dominated by Western copycats.

"First ladies are ambassadors of the culture and the design and of the soft power of a country. I'm glad that she chose to wear Chinese and take up that role of spokesperson for Chinese design here," said Hong Huang, publisher of the fashion magazine iLook and one of the most popular microbloggers in China.

Hong said it was too early to tell if Peng's high-profile public appearance signaled that she would be playing a more significant role in Chinese politics than her predecessors, who — unlike many of their Western counterparts — have been largely unseen. "It's good that finally China has a very pretty, very beautiful first lady and she can hopefully speak up for a lot more and complement whatever Xi wants to say, in a way, like all first ladies do."

Online retailers have sought to associate their products with what news portals are terming the "Peng Liyuan style," with searches for those key words resulting in lists of handbags and trench coats, many of which did not even resemble the items she wore. Heavy online traffic to Exception's website has caused it to crash since Friday, with it loading only sporadically on Monday.

The impact Peng, a celebrated performer on state television, is having on fashion bears some similarity to trends sparked by Britain's duchess of Cambridge, the former Kate Middleton, who helped bring Brazilian-born designer Issa to the world's attention before her marriage to Prince William. American first lady Michelle Obama has also lent cachet to designer Jason Wu by wearing a gown he custom-made to last month's inauguration.

For its part, Exception appears to be gauging its next move. Chinese politics is a traditionally secretive world and the company risks sparking a backlash by associating itself too publicly with the wife of the head of state.

Some of the more conservative among the Communist Party might frown upon the commercialization of the first lady's image or criticize such attention as being reflective of an excessively materialistic society.

Exception was founded in the mid-nineties by a couple who shared a love of design and the rock band The Ramones, according to Hong. Chief executive Mao Jihong, one of the co-founders, could not be reached on his cellphone. The label has expanded to become a high-end brand with nearly 100 stores and retail counters in China.

Company spokeswoman Tan Yijia, reached in the company's Guangzhou headquarters, said she could not immediately confirm that the pieces Peng wore on the trip were made by the label. The city's quality supervision bureau, however, said on its official microblog site that it has confirmed that Peng's outfit was made by Exception.

Despite Exception's public silence, commentators in China's fashion world are celebrating the attention on the label and, more significantly, the rise of the profile of a popular first lady.

"It's the first time that China's first lady appears like a modern woman. I think she dressed very well, with taste and confidence," said Zhang Yu, editor of China's Vogue magazine. "After so many years, we finally have a first lady who can represent us so appropriately. I think it is a landmark event."

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Associated Press researcher Flora Ji contributed to this report.

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