Sharif sticks to return plans

Islamabad: Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will return to Pakistan next week, despite a reported advice from the Saudi authorities to the exiled leader not go back, his party said yesterday.

President Pervez Musharraf ousted Sharif's elected government in a 1999 coup. Sharif was exiled to Saudi Arabia in 2000 after a Pakistani court convicted and sentenced him to life in prison.

Although Musharraf has repeatedly said Sharif left Pakistan under a deal in which he agreed not to return home for a decade, the Supreme Court last month ruled that he had an "inalienable right" to come back.

The two-time former premier plans to return to Pakistan on September 10 and says he will challenge Musharraf's bid to extend his rule.

Saudi Arabia's official news agency on Tuesday carried a report quoting an unnamed Saudi official as saying that Sharif should honour his commitment by not going back to Pakistan.

Key role

"Wisdom demands that Mr Nawaz Sharif commit himself to the promises he made; namely, not to return to Pakistan and to political activity," the Saudi Press Agency quoted the official as saying.

Yeserday, Raja Zafarul Haq, chairman of Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N party, admitted that Saudi authorities had played a key role in Sharif's release in 1999, but insisted that no Saudi official had issued any statement to stop their leader from returning home. "God willing, Nawaz Sharif will come to Pakistan on September 10 as per the plan," he told a news conference in Islamabad.

Preventive arrests

Haq also accused police of arresting more than 250 of his party's supporters across the country in anticipation of Sharif's return.

Police officials were not immediately available to comment on Haq's claim.

Another party leader, Sadiq Ul-Farooq, said he doubted the authenticity of the Saudi report as it did not quote a named official.

"I believe that the Saudi government has not, and will not, go against the wishes of the people of Pakistan, and will also respect the judgment given by the Supreme Court of Pakistan," he said.

However, Railways Minister Shaikh Rashid Ahmad, a staunch Musharraf supporter, said the Saudi statement supported the government's contention that Sharif's pledge was binding.

The statement will help "open the eyes of certain people", Ahmad was quoted as saying by the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan news agency. Sharif's expected return comes at a time of political ferment in Pakistan, as Musharraf tries to strike a deal with another exiled leader Benazir Bhutto, that could lead to them sharing power.