Sharif detained in Pakistan
Pakistani police detained former premier Nawaz Sharif on Monday after he returned from exile vowing to topple President Pervez Musharraf, the military ruler who ousted him eight years ago.
By Agencies |
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani police detained former premier Nawaz Sharif on Monday after he returned from exile vowing to topple President Pervez Musharraf, the military ruler who ousted him eight years ago.
Sharif said he was coming home to provide "a final push to the crumbling dictatorship" of Musharraf, the army chief and key US ally who has watched his grip on power weaken after months of mass street protests.
He showed his defiance as soon as his flight from London touched down by refusing to hand over his passport to officials for nearly two hours, prompting policemen to board the plane until he finally agreed to come out.
The 57-year-old was then taken into "protective custody" after going through immigration, officials said, although it was unclear whether he would be taken to a detention centre or deported to Saudi Arabia, his home-in-exile.
Baton-wielding police clashed with around 100 of Sharif's supporters and arrested key members of his party as he returned, while security forces threw up a five-kilometre (three-mile) security cordon around Islamabad airport.
Local television showed Pakistan International Airlines flight PK 786, the plane Sharif boarded in London on Sunday night, touching down and taxiing to the terminal building.
The two-time ex-prime minister shook people's hands after the plane touched down and his supporters on board chanted "Go, Musharraf! Go!" and "Long live Nawaz Sharif", a passenger on the aircraft told the media.
"The Punjab (province) police are at the airport and they have taken him into protective custody because he is wanted in corruption cases," a government minister said. A senior security official also confirmed Sharif's detention.
Police were holding him in the airport VIP lounge, officials said. Sharif faced cases of graft lodged by the country's anti-corruption body, the National Accountability Bureau, and other police cases, Punjab chief minister Pervaiz Elahi told private television.
Analysts say the return of the man he drove from power in a 1999 bloodless coup could be the biggest challenge yet for Musharraf, and further destabilise a nuclear-armed Islamic republic already awash in political turmoil.
Angry demonstrations over his rule, the deadly siege of a militant mosque, the threat of Al-Qaeda and Taliban guerrillas and even criticism from the United States have dogged Musharraf in recent months.
A combative Sharif, who rejected pleas to hold to the terms of his exile agreement and stay out of his homeland until 2010, said it was time for the president-in-uniform to go.
"I am returning to my country to give a final push to a crumbling dictatorship," he told Pakistan television from London before boarding his flight.
"I am going back to my country with the resolve to rid my motherland of problems and lawlessness it is plunged into because of the policies of one man -- General Pervez Musharraf," he said.
Sharif had planned to lead a triumphal motorcade from the capital Islamabad to Lahore, his family's power base -- recreating a procession by the country's top judge earlier this year when Musharraf tried to sack him.
After being ousted, Sharif was sentenced to life in prison for tax evasion and treason but was released in December 2000 on condition that he and his family live in exile in Saudi Arabia for 10 years.
But Pakistan's Supreme Court ruled last month that they could fly back. The court has repeatedly proved to be a thorn in the side of the president since he tried to sack its chief judge, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, earlier this year.
That bid set off the protests which spiralled into a full-blown political crisis for Musharraf, who has recently been negotiating a power-sharing deal with another former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, to try to stay in office.
Musharraf has also faced growing criticism from the United States, which has taken him to task over Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants operating on Pakistani soil and urging him to make good on pending elections.
Deputy US Secretary of State John Negroponte was set to arrive in Islamabad later on Monday for talks with Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and civil society representatives.
Sharif said he was coming home to provide "a final push to the crumbling dictatorship" of Musharraf, the army chief and key US ally who has watched his grip on power weaken after months of mass street protests.
He showed his defiance as soon as his flight from London touched down by refusing to hand over his passport to officials for nearly two hours, prompting policemen to board the plane until he finally agreed to come out.
The 57-year-old was then taken into "protective custody" after going through immigration, officials said, although it was unclear whether he would be taken to a detention centre or deported to Saudi Arabia, his home-in-exile.
Baton-wielding police clashed with around 100 of Sharif's supporters and arrested key members of his party as he returned, while security forces threw up a five-kilometre (three-mile) security cordon around Islamabad airport.
Local television showed Pakistan International Airlines flight PK 786, the plane Sharif boarded in London on Sunday night, touching down and taxiing to the terminal building.
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The two-time ex-prime minister shook people's hands after the plane touched down and his supporters on board chanted "Go, Musharraf! Go!" and "Long live Nawaz Sharif", a passenger on the aircraft told the media.
"The Punjab (province) police are at the airport and they have taken him into protective custody because he is wanted in corruption cases," a government minister said. A senior security official also confirmed Sharif's detention.
Police were holding him in the airport VIP lounge, officials said. Sharif faced cases of graft lodged by the country's anti-corruption body, the National Accountability Bureau, and other police cases, Punjab chief minister Pervaiz Elahi told private television.
Analysts say the return of the man he drove from power in a 1999 bloodless coup could be the biggest challenge yet for Musharraf, and further destabilise a nuclear-armed Islamic republic already awash in political turmoil.
ADVERTISEMENT
Angry demonstrations over his rule, the deadly siege of a militant mosque, the threat of Al-Qaeda and Taliban guerrillas and even criticism from the United States have dogged Musharraf in recent months.
A combative Sharif, who rejected pleas to hold to the terms of his exile agreement and stay out of his homeland until 2010, said it was time for the president-in-uniform to go.
ADVERTISEMENT
"I am returning to my country to give a final push to a crumbling dictatorship," he told Pakistan television from London before boarding his flight.
"I am going back to my country with the resolve to rid my motherland of problems and lawlessness it is plunged into because of the policies of one man -- General Pervez Musharraf," he said.
Sharif had planned to lead a triumphal motorcade from the capital Islamabad to Lahore, his family's power base -- recreating a procession by the country's top judge earlier this year when Musharraf tried to sack him.
After being ousted, Sharif was sentenced to life in prison for tax evasion and treason but was released in December 2000 on condition that he and his family live in exile in Saudi Arabia for 10 years.
But Pakistan's Supreme Court ruled last month that they could fly back. The court has repeatedly proved to be a thorn in the side of the president since he tried to sack its chief judge, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, earlier this year.
That bid set off the protests which spiralled into a full-blown political crisis for Musharraf, who has recently been negotiating a power-sharing deal with another former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, to try to stay in office.
Musharraf has also faced growing criticism from the United States, which has taken him to task over Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants operating on Pakistani soil and urging him to make good on pending elections.
Deputy US Secretary of State John Negroponte was set to arrive in Islamabad later on Monday for talks with Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and civil society representatives.
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