Setback to Musharraf as SC clears Sharif's return

ISLAMABAD: A two-judge Bench headed by re-instated Pakistan Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar M Chaudhry on Thursday ruled that the former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother can return home from their "forced exile".

The petitions of Sharif and his brother Shabaz was filed on August 2 and was listed for hearing by Chaudhry and senior judge M Javed Buttar.

The Supreme Court ruled, "It is a settled proposition of law that the right to enter in the country cannot be denied but a citizen can be restrained from going out of the country. The petitioner (Sharif) is a citizen of Pakistan and has a Constitutional right to enter and remain in the country."

It was similiar to the grounds of the 2004 court order, which the Sharifs had attached to their petitions.

The brothers had also accused the government of "brazenly violating" the orders in preventing them from returning.

Nawaz Sharif along with 20 family members were exiled to Jeddah in 2000, which the Musharraf government says was part of a deal it reached with Sharif and the Saudi royal family.

Sharif, who later moved to London, denies making a deal and claims that he was forcefully deported.