Nawaz Sharif says he will return to Pakistan

LONDON: Pakistan's exiled former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif plans to return home on Monday to campaign against its military ruler, defying last-minute pressure from Saudi Arabia to honour an agreement to remain in exile. The man who once dominated Pakistani politics plans to fly from London to the capital, Islamabad, Monday and travel by motorcade to his home city of Lahore. "I will go back to Pakistan on September 10 with my brother because my country needs me," he said on Saturday at a news conference in London. Hours earlier, a Saudi envoy had urged him to respect a 2000 agreement under which he promised to stay away for 10 years. His return could upset talks on a power-sharing pact between his archrivals Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto, another exiled former prime minister 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 acknowledged that Lebanese lawmaker Saad Hariri, who visited him in a Pakistani jail after his conviction in 2000 on terrorism and hijacking charges, had secured his release with an understanding that he would not return for a decade. But Sharif said that Hariri later told him the period of exile was only five years, though he acknowledged that was not mentioned in the document he signed. Sharif denied breaking his word by deciding to return to Pakistan now. "Why did Saad Hariri forget to mention at his press conference in Pakistan that he had not been able to honour his assurance to me?" he asked. Sharif spoke hours after Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah's envoy Prince Muqrin bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Hariri told a news conference in Pakistan that Sharif should honor his word by not returning home. They spoke after meeting with President Gen Pervez Musharraf. "We are sincerely hoping that his excellency Nawaz Sharif honors that agreement," the Saudi envoy said, adding King Abdullah was concerned about the "unity, stability and prosperity" of Pakistan. Hariri, who helped broker the 2000 exile deal and recently met with Sharif, also said Sharif's previous commitment to stay in exile should be binding. 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 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 on Monday. Musharraf, an important ally in the US war against terrorism, has seen his popularity has shrunk since his failed attempt to fire the country's top judge earlier this year. He has said Sharif would not be allowed to return home. Musharraf has denounced both Sharif and Bhutto as corrupt and incompetent and blamed them for Pakistan's near-bankruptcy in the 1990s. Information Minister Mohammed Ali Durrani said Saturday that Sharif should "honour his word" to Saudi Arabia. "He should not come (back)," Durrani said. However, the Supreme Court ruled last month the Sharifs were free to enter Pakistan and warned that their return should not be obstructed. While the government has accepted the ruling, authorities appear determined to disrupt the opposition's plans for a rousing welcome. Police officials said they have rounded up activists from Sharif's Muslim League-N to maintain order. The party says more than 1,500 have been arrested. 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. The political uncertainty comes amid a spate of violent attacks blamed on Islamic militants. On Saturday, a car bomb exploded in the northwestern city of Peshawar, wounding 17 people. Also, gunmen fired at a military vehicle in the mountainous Kohistan region, killing two soldiers, police said. On Tuesday, two suicide bombers killed about 30 people in Rawalpindi, a city just south of the capital.