Politics is a long game. 

And in Pakistan, perhaps no politician understands this better than Nawaz Sharif, who will be the country's prime minister for the third time. 

Exiled for seven years, he will be sworn into the office of prime minister by Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan's president and a man once imprisoned by Sharif. 

The general who overthrew Sharif in 1999, Pervez Musharraf, now sits in his Islamabad villa under house arrest, awaiting trial. 

Politics is indeed a long game.