Former Pakistani PM Returns From Exile
Exiled former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif returned home Sunday to crowds of jubilant supporters, adding to the volatility of a country shaken by political turmoil and militant violence.
Sharif arrived in his home city of Lahore from Saudi Arabia, where he has spent most of his eight years in exile since President Gen. Pervez Musharraf overthrew him in a 1999 coup. He waved to the cameras from an airport stairwell, dressed in his trademark white shirt and a dark waistcoat, state television showed.
Security forces had rounded up some Sharif activists and attempted to seal off the airport. But 1,000 supporters found a way through tight security around the airport to swarm into the terminal building, waving the green flag of his party and shouting "Musharraf, go!"
Police lifted batons to drive them back from the arrivals area, but had no space to swing them amid the dancing, jubilant crowds.
Hundreds more gathered outside the airport perimeter fence and along the route into the city, where loudspeakers mounted on trucks were blaring out patriotic songs.
Sharif's return could prove challenging for Musharraf, particularly if the former prime minister makes an alliance with Benazir Bhutto, another ex-premier who was allowed to return to Pakistan last month. But it is also a potential boon for the general, allowing him to claim that he favors a genuine return to democracy.
Both Bhutto and Sharif are seeking to return to power after Jan. 8 parliamentary elections. But the ballot, which the West hopes will produce a moderate government able to stand up to Islamic extremism, has been thrown into confusion by Musharraf's Nov. 3 seizure of emergency powers.
Major opposition parties — including Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party — have been lining up to take part in the elections with preliminary steps such as filing nomination papers.
But Bhutto and Sharif could still agree to boycott the vote. Bhutto said Friday she had not yet decided whether to participate. On Saturday, a loose coalition of opposition groups including Sharif's party announced it would boycott the election unless the government lifts the state of emergency, restores sacked Supreme Court justices and releases all political prisoners within four days.
After Musharraf overthrew Sharif, he gave the jailed politician a choice: accept 10 years of exile or face life in prison on charges including hijacking and terrorism. The charges stemmed from Sharif's desperate attempts to turn away a packed civilian plane carrying Musharraf — then the army chief — back from a trip abroad.
As the Pakistan International Airways plane ran low on fuel, Musharraf used the cockpit radio to contact his senior commanders on the ground, who quickly took over the country. By the time the plane touched down in the southern city of Karachi, Musharraf was Pakistan's new leader and Sharif was under arrest.
Sharif has been angling for a return ever since. In September he boarded a flight from London to Islamabad, but police in the Pakistani capital swiftly sent him back to Saudi Arabia.
This time, the outcome is likely to be different, with the Saudi leadership reportedly pressuring Pakistan to accept him. Saudi King Abdullah provided the plane that carried Sharif home.
"This time he will not be sent back," said Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, a former Cabinet member and close adviser to Musharraf.
Ahsan Iqbal, a spokesman for Sharif's party, said some 1,800 activists were detained in a crackdown ahead of the former premier's return.
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."
He was referring to the huge rally that greeted Bhutto when she returned last month. Bhutto's homecoming procession was torn by a suicide bombing which killed about 150 people.
Authorities have issued no warnings that Islamic militants bitterly opposed to Musharraf and Bhutto for their pro-U.S. police might target the religiously conservative Sharif.
However, his arrival comes one day after suicide bombers killed up to 35 people in nearly simultaneous blasts at the heart of Pakistan's security establishment in Rawalpindi, a garrison city adjacent to the capital, Islamabad.
It was not clear who was behind the explosions — which targeted a bus carrying intelligence agency workers and a checkpoint near army headquarters — but authorities said suspicion rested on Islamist militants who are fighting an increasingly bloody insurgency against government troops in the northwest of the country.
The army said Sunday that 30 pro-Taliban fighters and one Pakistani soldier died in an operation to capture militant positions in the Swat valley, a former tourist destination just 100 miles from Islamabad.
Musharraf cited rising religious extremism as a reason for declaration a state of emergency. However, many of those targeted under the crackdown have been political opponents, lawyers and members of the media.
More than 5,500 people have been detained since the crackdown began, but authorities insist virtually all have been freed since last weekend, when visiting U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte urged Musharraf to restore the constitution.