Nawaz Sharif Deported from Pakistan to Saudi Arabia Just After Returning from Exile

Quick stop-off in Pakistan for Nawaz Sharif - arrested then deported

Pakistan News.Net Monday 10th September, 2007

Former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif has been arrested, taken into detention and deported, only hours after arriving home from exile.

Mr Sharif was arrested, according to officials, on money-laundering and corruption charges.

Shortly before his arrest, there had been a tense 90-minute stand-off with authorities in his landed plane.

After Mr Sharif and authorities had settled their differences, he was driven to a terminal building and entered the airport's VIP lounge.

Security forces had sealed off Islamabad airport to stop Mr Sharif's supporters approaching.

Shortly afterwards, he was separated from his entourage, returned to the tarmac and put on board a helicopter.

Later, he was apparently transferred to a plane bound for Saudi Arabia.

During his two terms as prime minister in the 1990’s, Mr Sharif had been dogged by accusations of corruption.

His return from exile in London had always been threatened, due to a deal that had been set in which he promised to stay away for ten years. In return, he avoided a life sentence on hijacking and corruption charges.

An anti-corruption court last month reopened three cases against him at the request of President Musharraf, who ousted Mr Sharif in a coup in 1999.

The former prime minister had planned to lead a triumphal motorcade from Islamabad to Lahore, his political power base, but he was aware he might not be allowed the opportunity.

The Pakistani Government has said Sharif is breaking his word at a time when Pakistan needs stability in the run-up to elections.

Treatment to Sharif unbelievable, says journalist

Pakistan News.Net Monday 10th September, 2007 (IANS)

A journalist who travelled here with former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif from London said that 'it was unbelievable the way Sharif was treated at the Islamabad Airport'.

'He was pushed, thrashed and beaten by the police commandoes. One policeman even kicked him when he refused to hand over his passport,' Rauf Klasra of The News said.

According to Klasra, one of the policemen held Sharif by his collar and pushed him away from the journalists present at the arrival lounge.

Some 60 members of the media, both Pakistani and international, were travelling with Sharif.

Sharif, who spent some four-and-a-half hours at the airport, was later deported to Jeddah, where he arrived Monday evening.

Nawaz Sharif deported from Pakistan; arrives in Jeddah (Night lead)

Pakistan News.Net Monday 10th September, 2007 (IANS)

Islamabad/Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was dramatically arrested and deported to Saudi Arabia on Monday within hours of returning to Pakistan from seven years in exile in a bid to kickstart a campaign against President Pervez Musharraf who ousted him in a 1999 coup.

'The deportation is in the prime interest of the nation,' Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said.

Airport sources in Jeddah confirmed that Sharif had arrived in Saudi Arabia and that security officials had whisked him away to an undisclosed destination.

Sharif's plane landed in Islamabad at about 8.45 in the morning. The same plane with Sharif on board took off for Saudi Arabia at 12.55 p.m. Reliable sources said that two Saudi Arabian nationals and some officials of a Pakistani intelligence agency are also travelling with Sharif.

Earlier, three unnamed Saudi officials and seven Pakistanis went into the plane after it landed and tried to convince Sharif to back to London but he refused. Instead, he insisted on clearing immigration and going out of the airport.

According to sources, he was initially given two options: to either go to jail or go back to London but he preferred to go jail.

After clearing immigration and after three hours of consultations in the VIP lounge of the airport, Sharif, his entourage and the media persons who had accompanied him from London were told that the former prime minister would be shifted to the nearby Murree hill station and would be kept in government custody.

Sharif agreed to this, the sources said.

Police then led Sharif away from the VIP lounge after serving a warrant on him. He next boarded a military helicopter that apparently flew toward Murree while the rest of Sharif's party left the airport.

However, after 20 minutes, the chopper returned to the Islamabad airport and Sharif was shifted to the aircraft that flew him to Saudi Arabia.

Sharif and his family members were sent into exile to Saudi Arabia in December 2000 under an agreement by which, the government claims, he was to stay away for 10 years. Sharif contests this, saying the agreement ran for only five years.

Pakistan's Supreme Court had last month permitted Sharif to return, saying the agreement was one-sided.

Soon after he was arrested in Islamabad, Sharif's faction of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML) filed a contempt petition in the Supreme Court, which directed that the former prime minister be produced before it. By then, however, Sharif was already on the plane to Jeddah.

Authorities here imposed a major clampdown before he flew in from London, detaining all top leaders and activists of Sharif's PML, stopping his supporters from travelling to the capital and sealing off Islamabad airport.

All the roads leading to the airport were barricaded but some Sharif supporters managed to break through. They were arrested and baton charged by the police. Five people were hurt and the protesters later dispersed.

PML-N leader Khwaja Asif, who filed the petition in the Supreme Court, said: 'We would fight the government in the courts and politically.'

According to Asif, Musharraf wanted Sharif out of country to enable himself secure a second five-year term as president.

Musharraf, who is also army chief, is preparing to contest the presidential election to be conducted by the national and provincial assemblies some time between Sep 15 and Oct 15. General elections are also due around the end of the year.

'Its now almost martial law in Pakistan and Musharraf is the chief martial law administrator,' Asif told IANS, adding: 'We are going to take this issue up with the Supreme Court as well as with the people of Pakistan. We are exploring all legal and political avenues.'

Earlier, the government said that Sharif had been arrested on corruption charges. Azhar Mahmood Qazi, a senior investigator of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) who served the warrant, said Sharif had been held on money-laundering and corruption charges related to a sugar mill that went bust several years ago.

Sharif was accused of laundering Rs.1.2 billion, Qazi said.

Difficult times ahead for Musharraf

(News Analysis)

Pakistan News.Net

Monday 10th September, 2007 (IANS)

Difficult times lie ahead for President Pervez Musharraf, who is seeking another presidential term but is facing a strong challenge from a majority of the opposition parties led by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N).

Sharif Monday was again sent into forced exile to Saudi Arabia only four hours after he landed in Pakistan from seven years in exile in the Saudi kingdom and in London.

A debate has already begun among the intelligentsia, lawyers and the media about the manner of Sharif's deportation and whether it violates Supreme Court orders that the former prime minister be allowed to return.

The entire opposition, except for former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), has condemned the government move and has backed a protest called by PML-N on Tuesday.

'We stand by this call and would participate in the strike,' said Mutahidda Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) leader Qazi Hussain Ahmed, who was arrested on Sunday evening after he announced he would go to the airport to welcome Sharif.

'Sharif's return and deportation is a major blow to the president. It would weaken his position in the coming elections,' the editor of an Urdu daily said.

He claimed that many parliamentarians of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) were ready to join the Nawaz faction of the League.

Almost 80 percent of the PML-Q parliamentarians are former members of PML-N and many of them have already started distancing themselves from what is often referred to as the 'King's Party'.

Some of them have also been saying that they would not vote for Musharraf in the coming presidential election due between Sept 15-Oct 15. The schedule of election is expected sometime next week.

Musharraf in an attempt to legitimise another term in office, is also talking to Bhutto on a power-sharing deal.

However, the president's popularity has slumped since he dismissed Chief Justice Ifthikar Mohammad Chaudhury in March. Chaudhury fought back and the Supreme Court reinstated him after a four-month legal battle.

The people are also highly critical of the government for allowing interference in the country's affairs by foreign powers.

'It is strange that the government has involved Saudi Arabia and other countries in stopping Nawaz Sharif,' said disgruntled PPP leader Ghulam Mustafa Khar, who travelled with Sharif from London.

According to Khar, Sharif's differences with Bhutto started after she chose to talk to Musharraf.

The media has also been highly critical of the foreign interventions, with GEO TV airing the people's views. This is for the first time that people in Pakistan have started speaking against the Saudi rulers, who are otherwise well respected in the country.

'Saudi monarchs, Lebanese leader Saad Hariri or any other Arab dictator should not interfere in the democratic process in Pakistan,' said unnamed man on GEO TV. Another said the foreign countries must respect the Pakistani Supreme Court and the wishes of Pakistanis who want a democratic government in the country.

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