Jail threat hangs over former PM's return to Pakistan

Aug 24, 2007, 10:44 GMT

Islamabad - The vowed return of opposition leader and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to Pakistan after six years in exile came under further threat Friday when a government official said a life sentence against him could be reinstated.

A day after the Supreme Court in Islamabad ruled that Sharif is free to return home, Attorney General Malik Qayuum warned that the matter of his earlier crimes was still not closed.

'Sharif was convicted in a hijacking case and given life imprisonment but his sentence was pardoned only after he accepted exile for 10 years,' he told the Geo news channel. 'If he decides to come back, the government can also reconsider its decision of concessions given to him.'

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz was legally entitled to advise President Pervez Musharraf to restore the prison term, Qayuum said, adding that he had briefed the government and the president on all aspects of the case.

There was jubilation Thursday among opposition supporters when the court said the terms of the exile deal offered to Sharif after Musharraf seized power in a 1999 military coup were non-binding.

The ex-premier, who spent his exile in Saudi Arabia and Britain, had an 'inalienable right to enter and remain in country as a citizen of Pakistan,' ruled the court under Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, who was suspended by Musharraf in March for abuse of office but reinstated in July after mass rallies in his defence.

The prospect of Sharif's return deals a blow to the military ruler, who aims to win himself a further five-year term from parliament before October 15. Elections of a new parliament are due to follow within three months.

Sharif, 57, served twice as prime minister in the 1990s and remains a popular political leader and the head of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) opposition party.

He was sentenced in 2000 for treason, tax evasion and hijacking. The latter charge resulted from his order to divert a plane that was carrying Musharraf back to the country from a foreign visit as army chief, just before the general took power in October 1999.

Speaking to Pakistani television from London after the court's ruling, Sharif said, 'Democracy has won, dictatorship has lost.'

Concerning separate corruption cases that the government re-opened against him last week, he said, 'I'm not scared of them.'

His pledge to come back to Pakistan 'very soon' coincides with efforts of another exiled former prime minister and opposition leader, Benazir Bhutto, to secure her return home for the elections under a power-sharing deal with Musharraf.

The president recently spoke out against the return of either former prime minister, saying this would destabilize the country during the election period.

But in the face of rising Islamic militancy and political instability, he has been in back-channel talks with Bhutto in an apparent bid to ensure broader popular support for his re-election.

Headlining Friday's edition 'The Tide Turns,' Pakistan's liberal daily Dawn predicted that in the wake of the Sharif ruling many politicians will 'make a beeline' for his party.

'If the polls are to have any credibility it is essential that all political parties and their leaders should be allowed to participate,' the paper wrote. 'This is the only way to ensure a level playing field and make the exercise meaningful.'

During a visit to New York Thursday, Bhutto also welcomed the ruling, saying 'all citizens of Pakistan should be allowed to participate in elections.'

A government spokesman said after the court's judgement that 'we will prove to the world that we abide by the rule of law and the Constitution and believe in tolerance fairness.'

In a television appearance Thursday evening, Musharraf called for national and political reconciliation, citing common challenges like terrorism and extremism and the need for economic development.

'There is a need to forgive and forget the past because of the present political scenario and the need for moving ahead,' he said.