Airport security tightened ahead of Sharif's return

Pakistan stepped up airport security, banned rallies and detained opposition activists a day before former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s planned return to challenge the military ruler who sent him into exile seven years ago.

Sharif plans to fly from London to Islamabad tomorrow and travel by motorcade to his home to campaign against President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who ousted his elected government in a 1999 coup.

“I will go back to Pakistan on September 10 with my brother because my country needs me,” he said at a news conference in London yesterday, after a Saudi envoy urged him to respect a 2000 agreement under which he promised to stay away for 10 years.

As Sharif spurned the Saudi pressure and vowed to return home, authorities in Pakistan quickly put all of their major airports on high alert to avoid possible attacks, said two senior intelligence officials.

The officials did not explain whether they had received any specific terror report, although they said they would not allow any public gathering near the airports.

The new security measures came days after the US Embassy warned its citizens to avoid popular markets and crowded areas, saying it had received “non-specific information regarding terrorist attacks, possibly suicide attacks, against US interests or places frequented by Westerners in the major cities in Pakistan”.

Analysts say Sharif’s return could upset talks on a power-sharing pact between his archrivals Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto, another exiled former premier plotting a political comeback.

The government has suggested that Sharif could be quickly arrested. Media reports suggest a “VIP cell” at a 16th-century fortress is being readied.

But Sharif says he would rather be a political prisoner than avoid a “decisive battle with dictatorship”.

Sharif spoke hours after Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah’s envoy Prince Muqrin bin Abdulaziz Al Saud told a news conference in Pakistan that Sharif should honour his word by not returning home.

“We are sincerely hoping that his excellency Nawaz Sharif honours that agreement,” the Saudi envoy said, adding King Abdullah was concerned about the “unity, stability and prosperity” of Pakistan.

Sharif, who was twice elected premier, was toppled in Musharraf’s 1999 bloodless coup. He was tried and sentenced to life imprisonment before being released into exile in Saudi Arabia.

“I am going to Pakistan with a message of peace, love, tranquility and national reconciliation,” he said. “I am going to lead the people of Pakistan against the dictatorship, and the dictator sitting in Islamabad should give up his futile efforts to stop me.”

The government has reopened corruption cases against Sharif and his family. A court in the eastern city of Lahore issued an arrest warrant on Friday for his younger brother in connection with a murder case.

The brother, Shahbaz Sharif, the chief minister of Punjab province before the 1999 coup, is also expected to return from exile Monday. He has denied the allegation.

Musharraf, an important ally in the US war against terrorism, has seen his popularity shrink since his failed attempt to fire the country’s top judge earlier this year.

Musharraf has denounced both Sharif and Bhutto as corrupt and incompetent and blamed them for Pakistan’s near-bankruptcy in the 1990s.

However, the Supreme Court ruled last month the Sharifs were free to enter Pakistan – and warned that their return should not be obstructed.

Musharraf is expected to seek re-election by lawmakers by mid-October, but has yet to make a commitment to resign as army chief if he continues as president. Many experts say that staying in uniform beyond 2007 would violate the constitution.