NEWS ANALYSIS | PAK: WHAT LIES AHEAD?
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Mush wins Round 1, Pak nears endgame
Published on Mon, Sep 10, 2007 at 23:11, Updated on Tue, Sep 11, 2007 at 10:31 in World section
Tags: Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif
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New Delhi/London/Islamabad: He returned on Monday to Pakistan after seven years in exile for what amounted to just four hours in all.
Former prime minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif is now back in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, deported by the Pakistan government which claims it is a move taken to safeguard the country's supreme national interest.
But earlier in the day, even as the Pakistan International flight from London flew into Rawalpindi, the tension exploded on to the streets.
More than 2,000 supporters of Sharif's Muslim League were reportedly arrested, tear gas and batons used on those who tried to reach the airport.
Even former president Rafiq Tarar was not spared.
The government was clearly leaving nothing to chance. But in the process, it also gave Sharif a great media opportunity. “They have stopped everything, cordoned roads, blocked traffic and have asked me to get an immigration done,” he told a contingent of mediamen.
He bickered with immigration officials over handing in his passport, there were reports of senior generals - perhaps from the ISI - and Saudi officials trying to persuade him to return to Saudi Arabia.
Sharif refused. Instead, he demanded that the security cordon around the airport be lifted.
“I have heard that there’s a flight waiting for me. I don’t know what the government wants or where it wants to take me,” he said.
One-and-a-half hours after he touched down, Sharif was seated at the VIP lounge demanding the media be allowed to move with him.
But Islamabad had decided that the drama had gone on long enough. The former prime minister was whisked into a military helicopter and flown off to an unknown destination, jail was the general belief.
But this was only subterfuge. Sharif was brought back and bundled into a PIA special flight bound for Jeddah Saudi Arabia.
The deportation came minutes after his arrest and the Supreme Court order that he be brought before it.
But in Jeddah, he did not arrive to the same rapturous welcome like he did in Pakistan. Editor of Jeddah’s Arab News, Syed Faisal Ali said it was quiet affair. “The moment Nawaz Sharif landed here, there was no reception as such. Only 5-6 Saudi officials were there to receive him and nobody from his party, friends or relatives were present,” he said.
Ali said Sharif was whisked away in a convoy and is currently under a house arrest of sorts. “He was taken straight to his house called the Sharif palace and is there with no access to outside world. I can’t use the term detention but media or relatives haven’t been allowed in. Since it’s not a democracy in Arabia, no such protest is allowed,” he told CNN-IBN.
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