Pakistan braces for return of defiant Sharif

LONDON/ISLAMABAD: Defying last-minute pressure from Saudi Arabia not to return to Pakistan, former Premier Nawaz Sharif is set to arrive in Islamabad on Monday after a seven-year exile with a determination to topple President Pervez Musharraf whom he called a "reckless, impulsive dictator."

57-year-old Sharif, the chief of PML-N party, along with brother Shabaz would return to Islamabad from London at 1130 hrs IST on Monday, the deposed Premier's spokesman said.

The Sharifs would leave for Pakistan from Heathrow Airport Terminal III at 0200 hrs IST tomorrow morning on board Gulf Airways flight and arrive at Islamabad airport at 1130 hrs IST, Nadir Chaudhry said in London.
   
A huge contingent of media persons and people close to the former Prime Minister, who would be travelling with the Sharifs, have been asked to reach the Terminal III of HeathrowAirport, he was quoted as saying by Pakistan's Geo TV.

'The Sunday Telegraph' daily in London reported that Sharif has been warned that "there is a prison cell awaiting him when he lands in Islamabad tomorrow morning after prosecutors reopened corruption cases against him and his brother Shahbaz, who also faces murder allegations."
   
Sharif told the paper he was in no doubt that the legal moves were just another frantic attempt by Musharraf to stop him from contesting forthcoming parliamentary polls. But, Sharif said he would not be cowed by a 'dictator'.
   
Sharif said "I feel it is my national duty to go back to Pakistan to struggle for the return of democracy and Constitutional rule. This overrides all other considerations. These are cooked up and false cases and we will face it in a court of law. This is what I would expect from Musharraf. He is reckless, impulsive and erratic."
    
According to the daily, Musharraf is adamant that Sharif should not be allowed to return to Pakistan. "Let them enjoy the early moments of fight but you will see that we will have the last laugh," he told the ruling PML-Q leaders on Friday.

The daily quoted a government spokesman as saying Sharif would be imprisoned in a 16th century fort, built by a Mogul emperor in Punjab province and now used as a military prison. "He would be kept in Attock Fort," he said, adding that a cell had been made ready for his arrival.

Sharif was sentenced to life in prison on tax evasion and treason charges after he was forced out of power by Musharraf in a military coup in 1999 but he and his family were allowed to go to exile under a reported deal brokered by the Saudi royal family.

Expressing his determination to fly home, Sharif told 'The Sunday Times', "If America is pushing democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan, why should it be supporting a uniformed dictator in Pakistan?"

"We all want good relations with the US, but they are supporting a dictator against the wishes of 160 million Pakistanis and that's wrong."

His plan to force out Musharraf is two-pronged - to use the courts, which are showing new-found independence, and the "force of the masses". He will then push for free and fair Parliamentary elections, the report said.
   
Referring to the US-backed talks between another former Premier Benazir Bhutto and Musharraf, he said "now they are supporting a deal between a democrat and a dictator and that's also wrong. Musharraf has been hoodwinking the Americans."

"Far from standing up to the militants he's the one who created the vacuum for the mullahs to fill. Musharraf needs the threat of terror for his own survival, so he can claim to Washington that he must stay on as he's the only one who can control it."

"In fact it (terrorism) will never be controlled by him (Musharraf) as we saw with the Red Mosque," Sharif said referring to the Army raid against the Lal Masjid in Islamabad in which over 100 people were killed in July.

"Dictatorships are ideal breeding grounds for extremism and terrorism," he said.
   
According to the report, Sharif and his brother Shahbaz plan to land in Islamabad and travel by road to their home city of Lahore, accompanied, he hopes, by large crowds that will sound a warning to Musharraf that his days are numbered.

"I can't describe in words the emotion, I feel about going home," Sharif stated. "I had never been away from my country before for more than two weeks."

Referring to a statement by Pakistan's Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani that he should not come back, Sharif insisted that he would not be deterred: "What will he arrest me for? There are no cases against me."
   
Musharraf's term as President ends on October 15 and Sharif is determined to ensure that he is not re-elected. "His attempt to hang on to power by re-election from the currentParliament is absolutely unconstitutional. How can the same assembly which has a tenure of five years give him a tenure of 10 years - five at the beginning and five at the end? It's a joke."

Meanwhile, Sharif also reportedly claimed that he was verbally assured by intermediaries that he would have to stay out of the country in exile only for five years and not for a decade as maintained by the government.

Sharif said he received the assurance from Saad Hariri, son of assassinated Lebanon Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, who was negotiating the agreement on behalf of Saudi Arabia.

Sharif, according to the British daily, claimed that he, like Bhutto, had been approached by emissaries of Musharraf. "I would not deviate from my principles. I don't want to strengthen the hands of a dictator - I want undiluted democracy," he said.

He pointed out that both he and Bhutto had signed a Charter of Democracy in May last year which "clearly states there can be no parleys or deal-making with dictators."

"I'm dismayed and disappointed," Sharif said. "She came to my house in Jeddah, then we met here in London and I thought we'd buried the past. It was time for all democrats to join together. To have one of us take the other course and start supporting the dictator for personal reasons is too bad."

Sharif said he wished they were going back together as had been originally planned. "It would have been great," he said, shaking his head. "We would have been unstoppable."

The PML-N leader said he would be tough on terrorism and expel Taliban from Pakistani soil.
   
"Pakistan must never again allow anyone to use its territory for promoting terrorism," he said. "It is very painful to read all these things about Pakistan becoming a training ground for terrorists. I'd like to see a forward looking progressive Pakistan, not a country associated with terror."

Quoting a government official in Islamabad, The Sunday Times reported that "there will be a plane waiting at Islamabad tomorrow to whisk Sharif back to jail or Saudi Arabia. The (Supreme) court (last month in a landmark verdict) said he had the right to return, it didn't say he could stay or roam around."