Sharif returns home from exile

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Nawaz Sharif, the Pakistani prime minister ousted in a coup eight years ago, returned from exile yesterday to a nation under emergency rule and a raucous welcome from supporters.

A special plane lent by Saudi King Abdullah touched down at Lahore airport carrying Sharif, family members and some of his closest aides at 6:25 pm (1325 GMT), an AFP reporter witnessed.

Television footage showed Sharif, accompanied by his brother Shabaz, beaming and waving to a chanting crowd in the arrivals lounge.

Thousands of other supporters, chanting “Long live Sharif!” and waving flags and banners, massed outside the airport and along the road into the heart of this eastern city to give him a festive welcome home.

“Nawaz Sharif’s plane has landed,” Mohammad Iftikhar, a senior official at Lahore’s Allama Iqbal International Airport, told AFP.

State television also announced the arrival of the premier whom President Pervez Musharraf, his then army chief, ousted in a coup in 1999 and exiled to Saudi Arabia a year later.

It is Sharif’s second return — his first, on September 10 this year, ended just four hours later when he was unceremoniously deported back to Saudi Arabia.

“Lahore will accord a rousing welcome to Nawaz Sharif, mark my words,” his nephew Hamza Shabaz told Dawn television outside the airport earlier.

Sharif flew home this time with the government’s acquiescence, upping the pressure on military ruler Musharraf who has been condemned around the world for refusing to lift the state of emergency he imposed three weeks ago.

Security was tight, with more than 6,000 police at the airport and on the route into the city, manning barbed wire barricades and curbing access.

About 100 Sharif supporters broke through the security cordon and reached the glass doors leading to the arrivals hall. Police tried to push them back.

A further 1,500 supporters massed in the car park outside.

Workers decorated the streets with banners, posters and portraits. Crowds lined the route from the airport to the city. Loudspeakers on cars boomed out music and youths waved victory signs as they blared horns.

“The lion is returning,” said a supporter, Yasin Butt, “and when the lion roars, dictators and political turncoats disappear.”

Party officials complained hundreds of workers had been arrested. A police official admitted arresting “potential trouble-makers” to stop any “untoward situation” arising.

Ahsan Iqbal, a spokesman for Sharif’s party, said some 1,800 activists were detained in a crackdown since late Saturday in Punjab province, of which Lahore is the capital.

However, federal Information Minister Nisar Memon said he was exaggerating.

“There are no arrests as such,” Memon said. “About 100 people have been confined so that they do not create any issues. We don’t want the same mess as there was in Karachi.”

Last month bombers targeted the homecoming parade of another exiled former premier, Benazir Bhutto, killing 139 people and wounding hundreds in Karachi.

Sharif’s motorcade was to travel through Lahore’s congested centre before stopping for a homage at a shrine to the city’s guardian saint.

Musharraf has until December 1 to swear himself in as a civilian president for another five years after a compliant Supreme Court — stripped of most of its previous judges — confirmed his victory in a poll last month.

For that he must first step down as head of the army, which former deputy information minister Tariq Azim said is likely to be on Tuesday or Wednesday, allowing him to take office a day later.

Azim, who is close to Musharraf’s circle, predicted the emergency would be lifted before general elections set for January 8.

Sharif’s return will likely energise an opposition that is split over its role, with many arguing that contesting the vote would legitimise Musharraf’s tactics.

Benazir, whose party is Pakistan’s largest opposition group, is thought to favour joining the election, but her credibility has been hit by having held power-sharing talks with Musharraf before her return.

She has been in touch with Sharif about drawing up an agreed strategy and their decision is crucial as to whether any boycott will work.

But Benazir filed her nomination papers in her port city stronghold of Karachi, ahead of Monday’s deadline to register for the election. “We should not leave the field empty,” she told reporters.

She earlier welcomed Sharif’s return, saying it would accelerate the push for political change.

A local election commissioner in the southern port city of Karachi said she filed papers in her name for a seat reserved for women.

Party sources said she would also file papers for the constituency of her family’s ancestral seat in Larkana, some 300 kilometres (200 miles) north of Karachi.

Benazir is allowing her Pakistan People’s Party candidates to lodge their nomination papers ahead of Monday’s deadline for registration, but has warned they may yet be told to pull out in protest at President Pervez Musharraf’s emergency rule.

That will depend partly on what other opposition parties decide, although Benazir has indicated she is in favour of taking part, albeit reluctantly.

“We should not leave the field empty,” she told reporters Sunday.

Benazir said the imminent return later Sunday of another former premier and rival, Nawaz Sharif, was likely to energise the political process.

“With Nawaz Sharif’s arrival, the political process will accelerate,” she said. “We welcome his return to the country, it will contribute positively to the political scene.”

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