Pakistan's Sharif 'will return to challenge Musharraf'

An embittered former prime minister promised to return to Pakistan next month to fight what he called a battle against dictatorship and thwart President Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s bid to extend his rule.

Nawaz Sharif’s comeback would set up a three-cornered fight for power, also involving rival ex-premier Benazir Bhutto, in a front-line state for the war against terrorism.

Sharif yesterday vowed to return on September 10 after seven years in exile to formally start his campaign to oust the military leader.

“The battle lines in Pakistan are clearly drawn: on one side you have the people loyal to democracy ... on the other side are the forces of a dying dictatorship,” Sharif told a packed news conference at a west London hotel.

Sharif condemned an agreement that Benazir Bhutto, another exiled former premier, said she was close to finalising with Musharraf that could see them share power. Bhutto has said she will return by December.

Bhutto claimed Musharraf had agreed to step down as head of the army, ending military rule eight years after the general ousted Sharif in a bloodless coup. Musharraf, however, said he had made no such decision.

Sharif said he would lead politicians in opposing any agreement that prolongs Musharraf’s regime.

“Musharraf’s uniform is not an issue. The real issue is his illegitimate rule,” Sharif said. “This man Musharraf is on his way out. No one should try to rescue him.”

The Supreme Court ruled last week that the conservative, secularist Sharif, who has been in exile since 2000, and his politician brother could return to Pakistan.

However, Pakistani government officials have said that Sharif, who insists Musharraf must be removed from both the government and the army, could be re-arrested upon reaching Pakistani soil on charges dating to the 1999 coup.

Sharif said he was not afraid of Musharraf’s government trying to imprison him again, adding that, in jail, he might become a powerful symbol for the country’s opposition.

“I will go to Pakistan. I will launch my struggle, irrespective of if he arrests me or doesn’t ... We are not scared of what will happen to us _ we have seen enough of it,” he said.

The former prime minister plans to fly to Islamabad shortly before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, accompanied by senior members of his party and a contingent of mostly foreign journalists. From there, he plans to travel by road to his power base in the east, Lahore.