Incidentally, his bete-noire Musharraf, who came back from self-imposed exile to contest in the polls, is in jail following a battery of charges against him.
 
While Sharif has said he does not have any vendetta against him, he has made it clear that treason charges would be slapped on the former military ruler if he comes to power.  During his campaigning, Sharif has emphasised on the need to restart the peace process with India.
 
“We will have to pick up the thread from where we left in 1999. That was a historic moment and I would like to tread that path...We all agreed that we will have to solve, we will solve all the problems through peaceful means, sitting across the table,” Sharif had said.

“We got to bring that time back again and restart our journey from that point,” he had said.

Sharif's campaign has focused a lot on the economy.  Pakistan ranks 146th out of 186 countries in the United Nations' human development index, a measure of living standards, health and education.

Under the slogan “Strong Economy—Strong Pakistan,” Sharif seems to have successfully projected his image as a flag-bearer for private industry and entrepreneurship.  Sharif had taken steps to liberalise the economy during his time in office in the 1990s.

Though his economic credentials seems to be fine, he is seen as someone who is soft on the Pakistani Taliban after his calls for talks rather than a military onslaught.
 
Sharif was born in 1949 into a wealthy family of industrialists in Lahore and was educated privately at English-language schools.

He got degree in law from the University of Punjab before joining his father's steel company and eventually entering politics after his family was hit considerably following nationalization of  private industry in the 1970s by then Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
 
Under the patronage of former military ruler Zia-ul Haq, Sharif became first finance minister and then chief minister of Punjab - a post he held for five years from 1985 until he was elected prime minister in 1990.  

He served a three-year term until he was sacked on corruption charges and replaced by his arch-rival Benazir Bhutto.