WHY? DID HE LOSE AT BRIDGE?............
Posted on 09/10/2007 2:55:38 AM PDT by BlueSky194
Pakistan sent former premier Nawaz Sharif back to exile in Saudi Arabia on Monday, hours after he returned home vowing to topple President Pervez Musharraf, the man who ousted him eight years ago.
Police detained the 57-year-old Sharif on corruption charges on his arrival at Islamabad airport following a tense standoff involving his passport. He was deported soon after, put on a plane heading for Saudi Arabia.
Sharif had pledged his return would 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.
Analysts said the return of the man he drove from power in a 1999 bloodless coup could have been the biggest challenge yet for Musharraf, fighting to cling to power in a nation awash in political turmoil.
But the government of Musharraf, who has seen his popularity slipping as the crisis has deepened, swiftly returned him to Saudi Arabia, where he was sent into exile in 2000.
"He has been sent back," a senior security official told AFP on condition of anonymity. A minister and another government official earlier confirmed that Sharif would not be allowed to stay.
The two-time former prime minister had arrived just hours earlier on a Pakistan International Airlines flight from London.
He 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 AFP.
Sharif quickly displayed his defiance by refusing to hand over his passport to officials for nearly two hours, prompting policemen to board the plane until he finally came out. He was arrested in the VIP lounge soon afterwards.
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.
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.
Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party said they had filed a legal challenge in the Supreme Court saying that the court had ordered the government not to obstruct him.
Sharif 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 in London before heading home for his brief return.
"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.
After being ousted in 1999, 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 Musharraf 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.
Known throughout the world as the Reza Palavi, Musharaff seems to have learned a valuable lesson. One doesn’t allow an avowed enemy, bent on a violent uprising into one’s country. Bravo!
I gave a letter to the postman,
he put it in his sack.
Bright and early next morning,
he brought my letter back.
She wrote upon it:
Return to sender, address unknown.
No such number, no such zone.
We had a quarrel, a lover’s spat
I write I’m sorry but my letter keeps coming back.
So then I dropped it in the mailbox
And sent it special D.
Bright and early next morning
it came right back to me.
She wrote upon it:
Return to sender, address unknown.
No such person, no such zone.
This time I’m gonna take it myself
and put it right in her hand.
And if it comes back the very next day
then I’ll understand the writing on it
Return to sender, address unknown.
No such number, no such zone.
I guess it's nice to know that the courts and the judges are just as inept and traitorous over there as they are over here.
Lol
Sharif must have done this to get attention.
I assume the fanatics have more support and probably Benazir
Bhutto as well.
They are the real tough cookies that Musharraf has to deal with.
“Known throughout the world as the Reza Palavi, Musharaff ...”
Known throughout the world? Besides them both being military men, I see little comparison and can’t remember reading or hearing Musharraf being called that.
Yeah, except that punishing Sharif by deporting him to Saudi is like punishing a shark by throwing it into the ocean.
The comparison of Musharaff to the late Shah of Iran is an interesting one, IMHO.
WHY? DID HE LOSE AT BRIDGE?............
Sharif is Owned.
Sharif don’t like it
Rock the Casbah
What exactly is the proof that Sharif is bent on a violent uprising ????Musharraf deposed him in a coup.
About the Judiciary,well anyone who knows a thing or two will tell you that the Army & It’s leaders like Musharraf are the problem,not the solution to Pakistan’s problems.
The Saudis have a lot of influence in Pakistan.They have deep ties with the military-funded it’s Nuclear programme among other things.Sharif was exiled to Saudi Arabia in 2000 on the condition that he wouldn’t be able to return.
Sharif violated the terms of his last banishment - which permitted him to avoid getting hanged..
He was banned for 10 years....
He attempted to return in just over 7 years - I think....
He should have been hanged in the airport VIP lounge....
Folks who announce the objective of overthrowing the government by force - should arrive with an army, not a banished rabble rousing thief.
The terms of exile were an agreement between Musharraf & the Saudis.Sharif had to give up his passport,which was reissued when he wanted to visit his son who was in hospital in Britain.The Pakistani Supreme Court ruled that Sharif & his brother were free to return to Pakistan.Nothing illegal in that.As far as I know,I have heard nothing of Sharif or the PML-N saying that they would overthrow the Government by Force.Not that they don’t want to do it-but it would create a vaccum that they can’t handle.
Besides what exactly are the LEGAL reasons why Sharif is being deported??If he’s guilty of corruption,why not try him in Pakistan?Musharraf is scared & when he’s scared he does things like these.
...punishing Sharif by deporting him to Saudi is like punishing a shark by throwing it into the ocean
The perfect analogy. Bravo!
Color me surprised...
Who toppled him 8 years ago.....
Sharif and his family members have yet to stand trial for the MANY changes against them..
There will be more reasons to hand the bastard and his relatives -- than deport them.
It was probably "professional courtesy" that permitted them to escape their just rewards -- hanging --- and instead to simply banish them.. This can now be seen to have been a mistake.....
Indications are strong that Pakistan lacks enough honest folks in politics or the military to warrant trusting anyone .
Not an unusual scenario in a nation rules by Islamist cultists and lunatics..
-----------------------------------------
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- The government has reopened corruption cases against former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and a court on Friday ordered the arrest of his younger brother ahead of their planned return home from exile next week, lawyers said.
An anti-terrorism court in the eastern city of Lahore ordered the arrest of Shahbaz Sharif, younger brother of the former premier, in a murder case, said Aftab Ahmed Bajwa, a lawyer for the plaintiff.
Nawaz Sharif was toppled by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf in a 1999 coup and then sent into exile in Saudi Arabia. He has said he will come back to Pakistan to challenge the military leader's bid to extend his rule and stand in parliamentary elections, despite threats he could be re-arrested.
His younger brother is charged with ordering police to kill five men who were gunned down in Lahore in 1998. At the time of the killings, Shahbaz was the chief minister, or top executive, of Punjab province. Nawaz was Pakistan's prime minister.
On Wednesday, the father of one of the dead men filed an application to the court seeking the arrest of Shahbaz Sharif after hearing that he was due to return to Pakistan, Bajwa said. Shahbaz Sharif has denied the allegations. Meanwhile an anti-corruption court in Rawalpindi held a hearing in a case involving allegations that the Sharif family defaulted on a bank loan and owned property beyond their known sources of income, said Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta, a prosecutor for the state National Accountability Bureau. Don't Miss
The cases date back to 2001 and 2002. Hearings had been adjourned for years, but were reopened last month following an application by the government.
Bhutta said the prosecution sought a hearing in the case on Monday -- the Sharifs' planned date of return to Pakistan -- but the judge on Friday adjourned the case until September 13 to ensure the next hearing takes place after the Sharifs are inside the country. The brothers are currently in London.
Musharraf, a key U.S. ally in the war on terror whose popularity has shrunk since his failed attempt to fire the country's top judge earlier this year, has repeatedly said that Sharif must remain in exile for 10 years under the terms of a deal reached in 2000. But the Supreme Court ruled last month that Sharif was free to enter Pakistan and that his return should not be obstructed.
Musharraf is expected to seek re-election by lawmakers by mid-October, but has yet to make a public commitment to resign as army chief if he continues as president. Many experts say that to keep his uniform -- the main source of his power -- beyond 2007 would violate the Constitution.
To help smooth the way, Musharraf is trying to strike a deal with another exiled former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, that could lead to them sharing power.
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