Exiled Ex-leader Sharif Ready to Return to Pakistan

Former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif is poised to return home after eight years in exile, his party said yesterday.

Spokesman Ahsan Iqbal said Sharif was meeting King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, where the opposition leader has lived since 2000, last night to finalize the details. "He's coming back. We expect him in the next five or six days but we will have a definite date after his meeting with the king," he said.

Sharif's planned return spells another headache for President Pervez Musharraf, who is already battling a tide of international anger against his three-week-old emergency rule.

Yesterday the foreign ministry in Islamabad condemned as "unreasonable and unjustified" the Commonwealth's suspension of Pakistan at a meeting in Uganda on Thursday.

Sharif and Musharraf have been bitter enemies since 1999 when the general overthrew the then prime minister in a bloodless coup. Sharif tried to return home last September but was bundled on to a plane four hours after landing at Islamabad airport and flown to Jeddah, where he currently resides.

The Saudi authorities were complicit in his ejection but now, stung by sharp criticism in Pakistan and mindful of the January 8 general election, they want Sharif to go home, said Iqbal.

"They don't want Saudi Arabia to become an election issue in Pakistan. They conveyed to Nawaz Sharif that there's no reason why we should keep him," he said.

Sharif's Pakistan Muslims League-N party has its powerbase in Punjab province and ruled the country twice in the 90s. It does not enjoy the same level of countrywide support as Benazir Bhutto's People's Party but could poll well in January if the election is not rigged.

Musharraf flew to Saudi Arabia this week to meet King Abdullah, apparently to try to stave off Sharif's return. Musharraf's spokesman could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Opposition parties have threatened a boycott of the poll. But divisions persist and yesterday most parties filed their nomination papers before Monday's deadline. Musharraf is expected to resign as chief of the army by December 1, and possibly earlier, said attorney general Malik Qayuum.