Pakistan charges and deports Sharif over corruption

FORMER prime minister Nawaz Sharif returned to Pakistan from a seven-year exile, hoping to campaign against the country’s US-allied military ruler, but was immediately charged with corruption and deported to Saudi Arabia hours later.

On his arrival from London, black-uniformed commandos surrounded Sharif inside his plane; he was taken into custody and charged, then spirited to another plane and sent to Jiddah, where he was whisked away in a convoy from the airport, sirens blaring, witnesses said.

Sharif’s deportation sidelines a powerful political enemy of the general, but it is likely to deepen Musharraf’s growing unpopularity and reinforce public perceptions that he is an authoritarian ruler ahead of presidential and legislative elections.

The Supreme Court ruled last month that the two-time former premier, whose elected government was ousted by Musharraf in a 1999 coup, had the right to return to Pakistan and that authorities should not obstruct him.

Musharraf’s grip on power has faltered after a failed attempt to oust the country’s top judge ignited mass protests, but he still plans to seek a new five-year term in office by mid-October.

His government is also struggling to combat Islamic extremism that has spread from the Afghan border where al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden is believed to be hiding.

In Islamabad, the government defended its decision to deport Sharif in defiance of a Supreme Court order saying he had the right to return to Pakistan, claiming it was in the “supreme interest” of the country.

“Sharif’s deportation is in accordance with law and ethics,” Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said, Dawn TV and other local media reported.

Sharif’s brother, Shahbaz Sharif, who stayed behind in London, said their party would challenge the deportation in court.

The deportation is likely to stoke confrontation with opposition activists, who battled police yesterday morning on roads leading to Islamabad airport that authorities had blockaded with trucks, tractors and barbed wire. None got close to the airport.