ISLAMABAD, 12 September 2007 — Supporters of former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif petitioned the Supreme Court yesterday saying their leader was illegally deported.
The Supreme Court ruled last month that two-time Prime Minister Sharif had an “inalienable right” to come home and the government should not try to stop him. Authorities deported Sharif on Monday hours after he returned from seven years in exile.
Analysts say Sharif’s treatment is not expected to spark big protests — his party failed to draw huge crowds to welcome him home on Monday — but the fallout in the courts could be Musharraf’s biggest problem.
“I don’t think there will be large-scale protests but now the question is more of legal and moral propriety,” political analyst Nasim Zehra said. “These are the issues which are now very critical and they will decide the direction of Pakistani politics.”
Government officials said Sharif, who flew in from London, was given a choice of prosecution or leaving, and opted to leave. Asked about opposition accusations of contempt of court, Information Minister Mohammad Ali Durrani told a news conference: “It will be decided by the responsible institutions. Whatever the decisions, we’ll face them.”
In two towns in eastern Pakistan, several hundred people protested the deportation. About 200 members of Sharif’s party and other opposition groups blocked traffic on a road in Lahore.
“We will fight this battle in the court of law,” Sharif’s nephew, Hamza Sharif, told reporters on the steps of the Supreme Court after the petition was filed. “We are fully confident that we will win, God willing.” Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema denied any wrongdoing, but said the government would reply to the petition if the court accepts it.
Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azim told the British Broadcasting Corp. that the government obeyed the Supreme Court ruling to let Sharif enter the country, but that the former premier chose to go back into exile to avoid facing trial. “No hindrance or obstacle was placed upon his entry into Pakistan,” Azim said.
Sadiqul Farooq of Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N party rejected Azim’s claim as a “baseless concoction” and said that Sharif had volunteered to be arrested by police at Islamabad airport after he was served a warrant. “He (Sharif) said, ‘If you have any cases against me, arrest me and send me to jail,”’ Farooq said.
Ali Ahmed Kurd, a senior member of the Pakistan Bar Council, said lawyers across the country were boycotting court proceedings to protest Sharif’s deportation.
Meanwhile, the call by the opposition All Parties Democratic Movement to observe “Black Day” was met with poor response yesterday.
Ishrat Ashraf, a PML (N) member of the National Assembly, at a press conference here said most of the women workers of the party had been arrested.
The Pakistan People’s Party did not condemn Sharif’s deportation.
