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| Pakistani Front-Runner Offers Truce, and Flowers, to Hospitalized Rival | Pakistani Front-Runner Offers Truce, and Flowers, to Hospitalized Rival |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan’s former and future prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, visited his main political rival, Imran Khan, at a Lahore hospital on Tuesday, and Mr. Sharif later said both leaders had vowed to work together without acrimony. | ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan’s former and future prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, visited his main political rival, Imran Khan, at a Lahore hospital on Tuesday, and Mr. Sharif later said both leaders had vowed to work together without acrimony. |
| Mr. Khan, who made Mr. Sharif the main target of his dynamic and invective-filled anticorruption campaign, fell off a speaking platform and fractured his back on May 7. Just four days later, his party took a similar tumble on election day, not only failing to cut deeply into Mr. Sharif’s expected lead, but now possibly not even taking second place in Parliament. | Mr. Khan, who made Mr. Sharif the main target of his dynamic and invective-filled anticorruption campaign, fell off a speaking platform and fractured his back on May 7. Just four days later, his party took a similar tumble on election day, not only failing to cut deeply into Mr. Sharif’s expected lead, but now possibly not even taking second place in Parliament. |
| Still, regardless of the final tally, expected later this week, Mr. Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party will become a significant player on the political scene, controlling the regional government of a major province. Considering the challenges ahead, Mr. Sharif buried the hatchet and brought flowers. | Still, regardless of the final tally, expected later this week, Mr. Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party will become a significant player on the political scene, controlling the regional government of a major province. Considering the challenges ahead, Mr. Sharif buried the hatchet and brought flowers. |
| “Today, we have made peace,” Mr. Sharif said, smiling for the cameras at a news conference after the meeting. “He was receptive and acknowledged my gesture.” | “Today, we have made peace,” Mr. Sharif said, smiling for the cameras at a news conference after the meeting. “He was receptive and acknowledged my gesture.” |
| He added: “We all have to work together to get the country out of a quagmire of problems.” | He added: “We all have to work together to get the country out of a quagmire of problems.” |
| Mr. Khan was a giant in the cricket world before mounting his political movement. And throughout the campaign, he always kept a cricket bat close — as a totemic image on his posters and a prop in his campaign speeches. To the boisterous cheering of electrified young crowds, Mr. Khan would wave the bat and warn that he would use it to give the lion — the symbol of Mr. Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party — a heavy beating. | Mr. Khan was a giant in the cricket world before mounting his political movement. And throughout the campaign, he always kept a cricket bat close — as a totemic image on his posters and a prop in his campaign speeches. To the boisterous cheering of electrified young crowds, Mr. Khan would wave the bat and warn that he would use it to give the lion — the symbol of Mr. Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party — a heavy beating. |
| That captured the spirit of the campaign quite well. Sharif and Khan supporters scuffled, berated one another on social media, and dug up old scandals to spice their latest broadsides. Some political analysts faulted Mr. Khan as having allowed things to get too aggressive. | That captured the spirit of the campaign quite well. Sharif and Khan supporters scuffled, berated one another on social media, and dug up old scandals to spice their latest broadsides. Some political analysts faulted Mr. Khan as having allowed things to get too aggressive. |
| Mr. Sharif tried to appear above the fray during his campaign, but was given to writing off his main political rival publicly as having been a good athlete — and intimating that he had not become much more. | Mr. Sharif tried to appear above the fray during his campaign, but was given to writing off his main political rival publicly as having been a good athlete — and intimating that he had not become much more. |
| But on Tuesday, with Mr. Sharif well into the work of assembling a cabinet and governing coalition, the talk turned to finding common ground. Mr. Sharif, himself an avid cricket player in his youth, said that during their brief talk, “I offered to play a friendly match with him.” He said he had left a bouquet. | But on Tuesday, with Mr. Sharif well into the work of assembling a cabinet and governing coalition, the talk turned to finding common ground. Mr. Sharif, himself an avid cricket player in his youth, said that during their brief talk, “I offered to play a friendly match with him.” He said he had left a bouquet. |
| In recent days, video messages to Mr. Khan’s supporters showed him bedridden and wearing a large neck and back brace, appearing to accept his party’s election disappointment even while vowing to get to the bottom of election fraud reports. | In recent days, video messages to Mr. Khan’s supporters showed him bedridden and wearing a large neck and back brace, appearing to accept his party’s election disappointment even while vowing to get to the bottom of election fraud reports. |
| On Tuesday, however, his comments were confined to a press statement, in which his spokeswoman said the two leaders met in a “cordial atmosphere” and that Mr. Khan had urged Mr. Sharif “to resolve the Taliban issue, otherwise there could be no peace in the country.” Mr. Khan has long urged political outreach to the Pakistani Taliban rather than military efforts against them. | |
| Facing the media later, Mr. Khan simply quoted Mr. Khan as assuring him a “good working relationship.” | Facing the media later, Mr. Khan simply quoted Mr. Khan as assuring him a “good working relationship.” |