MikeLigalig.com

by Danny Kemp
1 hour, 28 minutes ago
 


ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistan put airports on high alert and detained hundreds of opposition activists Sunday as former premier Nawaz Sharif prepared to fly home from exile to challenge President Pervez Musharraf.

Sharif, the man Musharraf ousted in a 1999 coup, has defied international appeals to stay away and could face immediate deportation to his Saudi Arabian home-in-exile or even be arrested on his expected arrival on Monday.

The looming return of the two-time prime minister threatens to further destabilise the nuclear-armed Islamic republic ahead of key elections due in coming months, with the popularity of key US ally Musharraf flatlining.

"I and my brother Shahbaz are going back to Pakistan on September 10 and that will be the day of the people's victory," Sharif told a news conference in London on Saturday.

Sharif was due to leave London's Heathrow airport at 1930 GMT Sunday to return to Islamabad, via Muscat, arriving in the Pakistani capital at 11:45 am (0645 GMT) on Monday, his spokesman Nadir Chaudhri said.

"His plan is to go back to play his role in Pakistani politics, which is his right," Chaudhri told AFP. "He's head of his own party. Elections are coming up. He will mobilise his party for those elections."

The Pakistani government on Sunday placed all major airports on high alert, an airport security official told AFP, amid speculation that Sharif may try to land somewhere other than Islamabad or be diverted by the government.

Former industrialist Sharif, 57, says he plans to lead a triumphal motorcade from Islamabad to Lahore, his family's power base -- recreating a procession by the country's top judge earlier this year when Musharraf tried to sack him.

"Nawaz Sharif should respect his commitment to the most revered Muslim country (Saudi Arabia) and its leadership and complete 10 years in exile," Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani said.

Sharif was sentenced to life in prison on tax evasion and treason charges but was released in December 2000 on condition that he and his family live in exile in Saudi Arabia for 10 years.

Pakistan's Supreme Court ruled last month that they could fly back.

Saudi Arabia's intelligence chief and the influential son of assassinated former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri at the weekend joined calls from Musharraf for Sharif to scrap his plans.

A senior Pakistani cabinet minister told AFP that the Saudi comments meant the government "now has the justification to send him back to Saudi Arabia if he defies the agreement and flies into Pakistan."

One Middle Eastern diplomat told AFP that the Saudis would support such a decision.

Another option is to arrest Sharif, whose terms in power from 1990-1993 and 1996-1999 were tainted by corruption claims.

Media reports say a cell in a centuries-old fort has been prepared for his possible arrival, but such an option risks sparking mass protests.

"He's not worried about that. He'll face any charges in court," said Sharif's spokesman.

With growing public support behind him, Sharif is a potential obstacle to a power-sharing deal that Musharraf is trying to reach with another former premier, Benazir Bhutto, which could see the president quit the army.

An apparently nervous administration has ordered a police crackdown against workers from Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party. Party leaders claim more than 2,000 have been arrested.

"Despite hurdles and the arrest of more than 2,000 people, our workers will reach the airport in large numbers," senior party official Saad Rafiq said, adding that several hundred were seized overnight.

Human Rights Watch called on Musharraf to immediately release the supporters.

"The government should release arbitrarily detained opposition activists immediately and allow them to peacefully welcome Nawaz Sharif freely and without threat of violence," said the group's South Asia researcher, Ali Dayan Hasan.

Several dozen Sharif supporters staged a protest in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad, on Sunday.

An anti-terrorism court Friday ordered the arrest of Shahbaz Sharif in a murder case and the government asked another court to grant an arrest warrant for Nawaz on corruption charges.



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