Sharif sent back into exile

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- After seven years in exile, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's homecoming lasted just four tense hours.

"Thank God, we have reached our land," he declared as supporters accompanying him on a jetliner from London chanted slogans against the military government of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and cheered the arrival in Islamabad.

But the mood quickly dampened. Police commandos in black uniforms ringed the jet, sharpshooters took up positions on buildings overlooking the tarmac and those on board found their cell phones did not work because the government was jamming the networks.

Sharif was escorted to the international airport's VIP lounge, where staff served tea and cakes. As Sharif drained his cup, an anti-corruption investigator delivered an arrest warrant. Police then put him on a special plane to Saudi Arabia, the country where he had been banished after his ouster in a 1999 bloodless coup led by Musharraf.

Pakistan's deputy information minister, Tariq Azim, told British Broadcasting Corp. that Musharraf's government obeyed a ruling by Pakistan's Supreme Court to let Sharif enter the country, but he said Sharif chose to go back into exile to avoid facing trial.

"It was a choice given to him that either he goes to a detention center and be detained and tried, or he goes and completes his 10-year (exile) agreement that he has signed with the Saudi government," Azim told the BBC, according to an except provided ahead of its broadcast Monday night. "No hindrance or obstacle was placed upon his entry into Pakistan. He came here, and he was given every assistance."

Sharif had said he was willing to risk going to prison if it meant advancing his fight to restore a fully democratic government.

"We are not scared of anything -- prisons and jails -- we have gone through all that," he said before boarding his flight from London to Islamabad.

After Sharif was ousted by the coup, he reportedly agreed in 2000 to go into exile in Saudi Arabia and stay out of Pakistan for a decade in return for avoiding corruption charges.

The unceremonious departure scuttled Sharif's plans for a grand homecoming to campaign against the U.S.-allied Musharraf's bid for election to a new presidential term amid growing public resentment over military rule.

"Musharraf has probably taken a decision to twist any law to do what he can do to stay in power. This is the politics of survival," said Rasul Bakhsh Rais, a political scientist at Lahore University of Management Sciences. "He is relying on strong-arm tactics, not the law and the constitution."

The expulsion drew criticism from the European Union, which noted Pakistan's Supreme Court ruled last month that authorities had no right to block the return of Sharif, who served twice as an elected prime minister in the 1990s.

The United States, which has valued Musharraf as an anti-terrorism ally since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, had a more guarded reaction.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the action "runs contrary to the Supreme Court decision." But he declined to comment further, saying the "matter is still under legal consideration."

Sharif's party appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, which has issued a series of rulings challenging Musharraf's dominance since his failed attempt in March to oust the court's top judge ignited protests demanding democracy and civilian rule.

The president is also struggling against Islamic extremism that has spread from the Afghan border region, where pro-Taliban militants are gaining sway and al-Qaida is feared to have regrouped.

"Pakistan is entering a period of great instability," said Talat Masood, a retired general and political analyst who predicted Sharif's deportation would cause more unrest. "This will agitate those people who are trying to fight for the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary and wanting the army to go back to the barracks."

Clashes broke out Monday between security forces and Sharif supporters who attempted to greet him at the airport.

Police blockaded roads with trucks, tractors and barbed wire. They fired tear gas and Sharif supporters threw rocks in at least two locations near Islamabad and a bridge on the main highway leading to the capital from Pakistan's northwest frontier. Several people were injured at each clash, Associated Press reporters said.

Protests were called for Tuesday, and a hard-line Islamic coalition allied with Sharif said it would join the demonstrations.

"This is an insult to our judiciary. This is a joke played on democracy and the constitution of Pakistan," said Ameer ul-Azeem, the coalition spokesman.

Not everyone condemned the expulsion. The opposition party led by Banazir Bhutto, another exiled former prime minister with ambitions to return for parliamentary elections, adopted a neutral stance.

Her Pakistan People's Party said the Supreme Court "rightly ruled" that Sharif had a right to return home, but added that his reported 1999 agreement to avoid corruption charges by going into exile for a decade was a matter between him, those who helped broker the deal and Pakistan's courts.

Sharif's renewed exile could help clear the way for Bhutto and Musharraf to reach a power-sharing agreement.

Musharraf wants her party's support to help him secure a new five-year presidential term when parliament elects a leader by mid-October. Bhutto wants corruption charges against her dropped and a chance to become prime minister for a third time after parliamentary elections due by mid-January.

Bhutto could face public criticism and dissent within her party if she teamed with Musharraf.

Musharraf and Bhutto "might think the path is now clear for them, but the longer term ramifications are going to be a new political polarization and doubts about the fairness of the electoral process," said Rais, the political scientist in Lahore.

At least four senior opposition leaders were under house arrest, among several hundred political party activists rounded up recently, officials said.

They included the head of an political alliance that supports Sharif, Qazi Hussain Ahmed; another hard-line Islamic lawmaker, Liaqat Baluch; the acting president of Sharif's party, Javed Hashmi; and party chairman Raja Zafarul Haq, party and government officials said.

Sharif, the son of a wealthy industrialist, appointed Musharraf to the post of military chief in 1998, but his attempt to fire the general a year later triggered the coup that put Musharraf in power.

Accused of denying landing rights to a plane carrying Musharraf that was short on fuel, Sharif was jailed but later released and sent to Saudi Arabia after allegedly pledging not to return for a decade.

The government has accused Musharraf of reneging on the deal, which was reached with the assent of the Saudi government. The Saudi intelligence chief said Saturday in Islamabad that Sharif should respect the accord.

Investigator Azhar Mahmood Qazi said Sharif was being arrested on money-laundering and corruption charges stemming from a sugar mill business several years ago. Sharif was accused of laundering $21.2 million, he said.

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Associated Press writers Zarar Khan, Sadaqat Jan, Munir Ahmad, Chris Brummitt and Alisa Tang contributed to this report.