UNITED KINGDOM / PAKISTAN: Pakistan's exiled former PM Nawaz Sharif intends to return to contest elections to try to oust President Pervez Musharraf from office

Pakistan's Supreme Court ruled on Thursday (August 23) that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif can return home after seven years in exile in a decision he hailed as a victory against dictatorship. Sharif, a two-time prime minister overthrown by army chief General Pervez Musharraf in a 1999 coup, has vowed to oppose a bid by President Musharraf for another term in office. "I have every intention of going back to Pakistan in the coming days. Our struggle will continue even if I go back to Pakistan. We will take to its logical end, and that logical end is to have true democracy in Pakistan, do away with a uniformed presidency, send the army back into the barracks," he told Reuters in London. The timing of a return by Sharif could hardly be more awkward for U.S. ally Musharraf, who is expected to seek re-election from the national and provincial assemblies between mid-September and mid-October and hold parliamentary elections within months. "I don't have to receive an assurance from him (Musharraf). I think the Supreme Court's judgement is an assurance by itself and I don't talk to dictators. I am committed not to have any parties with dictators. I think democracy and dictatorship don't go together, they are poles apart. Therefore we have got to stick to our principles, democratic values, and these democratic values will further defeat dictatorship in the country," Sharif added. After the 1999 coup, Musharraf co-opted the rump of Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (PML) to form his own political base, and analysts say that could splinter if Sharif were to return. Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry told the court Sharif and his brother, Shahbaz, who is also a politician and was exiled with his brother in 2000, had an "inalienable right" to come back. Both brothers are in London. Hundreds of Sharif supporters chanted "go Musharraf, go!" outside the court after the ruling and supporters took to the streets in Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore. "This judgement has been announced by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. That both the petitions are maintainable, and under Article 15 of the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, both the petitioners are allowed to enter into Pakistan," supreme court lawyer Abdul Razzak told Reuters shortly after the verdict was announced. The government said in comments carried by the state news agency the verdict would be respected. Sharif was sentenced to life in prison on security and graft charges after he was overthrown, and Pakistan's attorney general said Sharif might on his return face the jail term he avoided by leaving the country. Sharif and Benazir Bhutto, another former prime minister in exile, are both hoping to take part in the general elections that Musharraf has promised will be free and fair.

ITN Source | August 24, 2007

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