Pakistan rounds up opposition supporters

Police manned roadblocks and rounded up supporters of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif today as he prepared to end seven years in exile and return to Pakistan to lead a campaign to topple the country’s US-allied military ruler.

The government of President General Pervez Musharraf, who ousted Sharif’s elected government in a 1999 coup, has hinted it may arrest him when he arrives tomorrow, a move that would likely sharpen political tensions ahead of presidential and legislative elections and could trigger street violence.

The looming showdown, which could further weaken Musharraf’s faltering grip on power, comes as the country battles surging Islamic extremism that has spread from the Afghan border, where Osama bin Laden and other al Qaida leaders are believed to be hiding.

“I know that this is a risky course for me and there can be dangers in it,” Sharif told Pakistan’s Geo TV channel in an interview broadcast today. “But I am doing this for Pakistan. Nothing else can be more pleasing for me then freeing (Pakistan) from the clutches of military dictatorship. I will be happy that for a small price – my going to jail – Pakistan will get freedom.”

Sharif plans to return with his brother Shabhaz Sharif, who last week had an arrest warrant issued against him in connection with a murder case. Scores of journalists and party workers are also booked on the plane, a commercial flight that is scheduled to transit in Oman.

After arriving in Islamabad, the Sharifs plan to travel in a motorcade to their home and political base in Lahore, about 180 miles to the south. The trip through Punjab province could take three days as he greets supporters along the way, Sharif’s party said.

More than 2,000 Sharif supporters in Punjab have been detained in a crackdown over the past four days and others have gone into hiding, said Ahsan Iqbal, a spokesman for Sharif’s party. Police and security officials confirmed about 700 arrests.

Police in Lahore with orders to search for members of Sharif’s party stopped cars on the main road leading to Islamabad, witnesses said. Police also manned checkpoints in and around the capital. Media reports said authorities planned to prevent anyone from travelling to the city’s international airport tomorrow morning unless they were booked on a departing flight.

“It’s extremely important to show that people are sick and tired of this dictatorial regime,” said Zulfikar Ali Khan Khosa, president of the Punjab branch of Sharif’s party, predicting huge crowds would travel to the airport despite the crackdown.

Naseer Bhutta, the leader of a group of lawyers affiliated with Sharif’s party, left Lahore today for the capital with around 40 other supporters.

“We don’t want some kind of guerrilla war, because we have a principled stand,” Bhutta said before departing. “If they come with the bullet and the gun, we will respond with our passion and our flags.”

Analysts say Sharif’s return could crank up the pressure on Musharraf and upset talks on a power-sharing pact with his long-time rival Benazir Bhutto, another exiled former prime minister planning a political comeback in the country.

Musharraf wants to win a new five-year presidential term from lawmakers by mid-October, while both Sharif and Bhutto want to contest general elections due by mid-January 2008.

Musharraf, who has received billions of dollars in US aid to help in the country’s fight against al Qaida, has seen his popularity shrink since his failed attempt to fire Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry earlier this year spurred calls for an end to military rule.

On Saturday, two foreign envoys – Lebanese lawmaker Saad Hariri and Saudi intelligence chief Prince Muqrin bin Abdulaziz Al Saud – appeared at a news conference outside Musharraf’s presidential office saying Sharif should respect a 2000 agreement under which he allegedly promised to stay away from Pakistan for 10 years.

Sharif acknowledged that Hariri – the son of assassinated former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri – helped broker his release in 2000 after he was convicted of terrorism and hijacking charges in Pakistan, and the agreement included a 10-year exclusion period – although he claimed Hariri later told him it would only last five years.

But last month, the Supreme Court ruled that Sharif – the son of a wealthy industrialist who has remained a key political player despite his years in exile - had the right to return home.

Musharraf has been holding talks with former Prime Minister Bhutto on a deal that could see them share power, which analysts say Washington would likely welcome. But the negotiations appear to have run into opposition from lawmakers on both sides.

Bhutto says she also plans to return to Pakistan, regardless of the outcome of the talks. She is due to announce her return date on September 14.