LAT : Sharif gets a hero's welcome

Sharif gets a hero's welcome

Ten of thousands of supporters hail the deported leader's return to Pakistan as the politics get more complicated.

By Laura King, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer | November 25, 2007

LAHORE, Pakistan -- Tens of thousands of cheering, chanting supporters showered former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif with rose petals as he triumphantly returned from exile today, posing a thorny new challenge not only to President Pervez Musharraf but also to the pro-Western opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

Sharif's comeback, just 11 weeks after he was summarily deported by Musharraf, the military leader who once overthrew him, marks a complex new phase in the political turmoil that has gripped the nuclear-armed country, a key U.S. ally, for much of the year.

As Musharraf-decreed emergency rule enters its fourth week, his opponents are jockeying for position, seeking an advantage not only against him but possibly against one another as well. Sharif is more religiously conservative and less overtly friendly to the West than either Musharraf or Bhutto.

"Obviously, it's huge," said University of Oregon professor Anita Weiss of Sharif's return. The author of several books on Pakistan said that many Pakistanis see in Sharif "a mature, elder" -- she paused for emphasis -- "male statesman."

In Lahore, the eastern city that is Pakistan's political nerve center, Sharif's backers sought to muster a display of support comparable to the enormous crowds that turned out to welcome Bhutto last month -- before her homecoming procession was shattered by a suicide bombing that killed nearly 150 people.

"Look at all these people," said party leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, shouting to be heard in the airport's cavernous arrival terminal, which was filled with chanting supporters who had surged past police barricades. "And we had only a few days' notice."

The celebrations, which drew tens of thousands of people, continued long into the night

Sharif's plans were finalized Friday after a meeting with Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, who flew the former leader here in a special plane and provided him with a bulletproof Mercedes, which he did not use, however, for his tumultuous journey into the center of Lahore from the airport.

With fireworks arcing into the sky, supporters danced in front of his convoy, slowing progress to a crawl. Honking cars and buses, with flag-waving supporters dangling from rooftops and out windows, jammed the road long into the night.

Sharif, clad in a traditional white shalwar khameez, or tunic and baggy trousers, topped with a black vest, told supporters he had not made compromises with Musharraf to be allowed back into his homeland.

"My return is not the result of any deal!" he told the crowd at the airport.

Much of the impetus for Sharif's return is thought to have come from Saudi Arabia, which was embarrassed by its role in the previous deportation. Musharraf, who made a 24-hour visit to the kingdom last week, was reportedly told by Saudi officials they were unwilling to risk prestige and popularity by appearing to hold Sharif against his will.

Amid the jubilation today, Sharif's followers appeared to ignore that he was an unpopular prime minister in 1999, when Musharraf's coup was widely welcomed. As Pakistan's leader, he was plagued by accusations of corruption and incompetence.

"It shows how much there is hunger for change," said Khalid Butt, the editor of the Pakistan Observer.

At the airport, supporters hoisted Sharif and his politician brother, Shabbaz, onto their shoulders, shouting, "Nawaz, Nawaz!" And "Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif!"

"After all these years, our leader is home," said Hajira Rasheed, a party worker in her 50s who wore a baseball cap emblazoned with Sharif's image.

The arrival came on the eve of the deadline for registering to take part in parliamentary elections scheduled for Jan. 8. Party officials said Sharif and his wife and brother would all register as candidates, though the party still held open the option of a boycott.

Bhutto, too, prepared to register her candidacy on Monday, signaling that her Pakistan Peoples Party was probably unwilling to sit out the contest. Opposition parties say it would be extremely difficult to hold a free and fair election while the country remains under de facto martial law.

Under the decree, Musharraf suspended the constitution, fired the chief justice and imposed curbs on independent news channels.

"The constitution of Pakistan should be restored, and there should be rule of law," Sharif told his supporters at the airport.

Even if Sharif's party agrees to take part in the upcoming vote, it was not clear whether he himself would be allowed to run, because he has criminal convictions stemming from his efforts to resist Musharraf's coup against him.

Musharraf turned on Sharif after the then-prime minister tried to fire him. Their confrontation came to a dramatic climax when Sharif tried to prevent Musharraf's plane from landing after a trip abroad. The general was able to make radio contact with senior military staff on the ground, and the takeover was complete by the time his plane landed.

Musharraf promised to step down as military chief by month's end after his new loyalist Supreme Court ruled last week that his election by parliament last month was legal.

In the wake of Musharraf's coup, Sharif was charged with offenses including treason and hijacking and, in a plea bargain, agreed to go into exile for 10 years. He later said that pledge was made under duress.

Party officials said hundreds of Sharif supporters were rounded up by dawn, hours before his arrival, in a harsh reminder that Musharraf still wields sweeping powers in the wake of his Nov. 3 emergency decree. Police disputed the figures, saying those detained amounted only to dozens.

More than 5,000 people, most of them lawyers, human-rights activists and opposition politicians, were jailed in the days following Musharraf's decree. Many have since been released, but new arrests are still taking place, and several of the country's most senior lawyers remain in prison.

A day before Sharif's arrival, suicide bombers struck a heavily fortified area of Rawalpindi, the site of Pakistan's military headquarters. Up to three dozen people died in that attack, the first major suicide bombing since the start of emergency rule.

Musharraf said the escalating Islamic insurgency was the main reason for his emergency decree, although most observers believe the real aim was to silence the Supreme Court, led by activist Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.

Chaudhry, fired in the first hours of emergency rule, effectively remains under house arrest.

The re-emergence of Sharif as a political force poses a fresh quandary for Musharraf, who has come under heavy international criticism for his emergency declaration.

Musharraf's own party is a breakaway from the party Sharif heads, which still retains a large following and would be well positioned to siphon off support from the general.

It was unclear whether Sharif might try to ally himself politically with Bhutto. Some analysts believe Musharraf relented and allowed Sharif to return to diminish Bhutto's role as the main opposition leader.

Sharif's earlier homecoming, on Sept. 9, lasted less than four hours. When his plane landed in Islamabad's international airport, he never managed to make it out of the terminal. Musharraf's government sealed off the airport, and waiting government forces bundled Sharif onto a plane back to Saudi Arabia.

laura.king@latimes.com