Pakistan court orders arrest of Nawaz Sharif's brother

LAHORE: A Pakistani court on Friday ordered the arrest of the brother of former Premier Nawaz Sharif, while Sharif too faces detention on the pair's planned return from exile next week, officials said.

Shahbaz Sharif has been charged with ordering the killing of five people in an allegedly fake police encounter during his 1997-99 tenure as Chief Minister in Punjab province, a lawyer and the Sharifs' party said.

The brothers, arch rivals of President Pervez Musharraf who ousted Nawaz Sharif in a bloodless coup in 1999, have vowed to come back to Pakistan on Monday to challenge Musharraf's eight-year military rule.

"The anti-terrorism court judge Shabbir Hussain Chatha has ordered police to arrest Shahbaz Sharif and produce him before the court," Aftab Bajwa, a lawyer for one victim's family, said.

The court has ordered that "Shahbaz Sharif should be arrested (at) whichever airport he lands at," he said after the hearing in the eastern city of Lahore.

According to the prosecution, police in 1998 killed five students from an Islamic school or madrassa on the orders of Shahbaz Sharif, who suspected them of being involved in acts of terrorism.

"We will adopt all legal methods to defend their rights," said Siddiqul Farooq, a senior member of the Sharifs' faction of the Pakistan Muslim League party, confirming that the arrest warrants had been issued.

Their planned return comes as another ex-premier, Benazir Bhutto, seeks a power-sharing deal that would involve Musharraf quitting the army in return for her backing of his bid to be elected for another five-year term as President.

Pakistan's government has refused to say what it plans to do if the Sharifs stick to their plan to fly to Islamabad on Monday and then stage a mass procession to their powerbase in the eastern city of Lahore.

Its main options are to send the brothers back to London or Saudi Arabia, arrest one or both, divert the flight to Lahore to prevent the roadshow or simply allow them to go ahead with their plan.

"The government will decide on September 9," cabinet minister and close Musharraf confidante Sheikh Rashid said when asked about Sharif's return and the government's likely response.

But in a related development, an anti-corruption court in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, near Islamabad, heard cases Friday against Nawaz Sharif and his family brought by the government's graft-busting body.

The cases relate to an alleged default on a loan obtained by the Sharifs for a paper mill, as well as obtaining property and assets in a foundry beyond their declared means.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB), which was set up by Musharraf in 1999 to fight corruption, told the court that under its rules the chief of the organisation was empowered to order the arrest of Sharif.

"The judge however said it was a matter for the NAB to decide," Deputy Prosecutor Zulfiqar Bhutta said, indicating that the former Prime Minister could also face arrest.

Industrialist-turned-politician Nawaz Sharif was sentenced to life in prison on tax evasion and treason charges after Musharraf toppled him in October 1999.

Under a deal brokered by the Saudi royal family, Musharraf released him in December 2000 on condition that he and his family live in exile in Saudi Arabia for 10 years.

But the Sharifs won a Supreme Court battle against their banishment in August, after which they vowed to return home for what Nawaz called a "decisive battle against dictatorship in Pakistan."