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Nawaz Sharif warned cell awaits in Pakistan

By admin | September 9, 2007

The man hoping to topple General Pervez Musharraf will risk arrest by flying home today from London straight into a showdown with the Pakistani president.

Nawaz Sharif has been warned that there is a prison cell awaiting him when he lands in Islamabad tomorrow morning after prosecutors reopened corruption charges against him and his brother Shahbaz, who also faces murder allegations.

Mr Sharif told The Sunday Telegraph he was in no doubt that the legal moves were just another frantic attempt by Gen Musharraf to prevent him from standing in forthcoming parliamentary elections. But the former prime minister, who was ousted by Gen Musharraf in 1999, said he would not be cowed by a man he dismissed as a “dictator”.

He said: “I feel it is my national duty to go back to Pakistan to struggle for the return of democracy and constitutional rule. This overrides all other considerations.

“These are cooked-up and false cases and we will face it in a court of law. This is what I would expect from Mr Musharraf. He is reckless, impulsive and erratic.”

Gen Musharraf is adamant that Mr Sharif should not be allowed to return to Pakistan. “Let them enjoy the early moments of fight but you will see that we will have the last laugh,” he told members of the ruling party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid, on Friday.

A government spokesman said that Mr Sharif would be imprisoned in a 16th-century fort, built by a Mogul emperor in Punjab and now used by the intelligence services as a military prison. “He would be kept in Attock Fort,” he said, adding that a cell had been made ready for his arrival.

Mr Sharif was sentenced to life in prison on tax evasion and treason charges after he was forced from power by Gen Musharraf in 1999 but he and his family were allowed to go into exile under a deal brokered by the Saudi royal family. That should have prevented him from returning until 2010, but last month Pakistan’s Supreme Court ruled that he should be allowed to come home.

The corruption charges for which he faces arrest were reopened last month at the request of the government. His brother is also charged with ordering police to kill five men who were gunned down in Lahore in 1998 when Shahbaz Sharif was chief minister of Punjab province. Both men deny the claims.

Mr Sharif’s spokesman, Nadir Chaudhri, said it was inevitable that Gen Musharraf would try to hinder his return. “We are going to oust a dictator and these things must be expected,” he said.

The president’s opposition to his return appears only to have bolstered Mr Sharif’s popularity. Large crowds are expected to meet him at the airport and he intends to travel in a cavalcade the 230 miles to Lahore, stopping several times to address his supporters. Television networks are planning to provide rolling coverage of his return, limiting the government’s opportunities to use force to break up the celebrations.

The government has begun rounding up Mr Sharif’s supporters to prevent his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party from welcoming him home. The party claims 1,500 supporters have been arrested.

Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, who led the party in Mr Sharif’s absence, said plans were in hand to prevent the arrest of either of the Sharif brothers tomorrow.

Benazir Bhutto, another exiled former prime minister, has been holding talks with the general over sharing power. Washington, which regards Gen Musharraf as a key ally, is urging him to seal a deal with Ms Bhutto, who twice held power but was ousted in 1996 over unproved corruption allegations. Talks have stalled over his refusal to stand down as leader of the Army but Ms Bhutto is expected to announce this week the date when she, too, will return.

Gen Musharraf is waiting for a decision by the Supreme Court, a week tomorrow, on whether he can stand for re-election by the current parliament next month. He faces a series of constitutional stumbling blocks and his relationship with Iftikhar Hussain Chaudhary, the chief justice, is in tatters after the president removed the judge from office earlier in the year. Even if the court were to rule in his favour, the number of defections from his party would make it unlikely that he could secure re-election.

The imposition of martial law remains a last resort, but party figures say Gen Musharraf is giving it serious consideration.

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