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LONDON : Pakistan's former prime minister Nawaz Sharif said Thursday he would return home next month, ending nearly seven years of exile in Saudi Arabia and Britain.
"On the 10th of September we will be landing at Islamabad," he told reporters at a London press conference, adding that he wanted to "launch a decisive battle" against the man who forced him into exile, embattled President Pervez Musharraf.
His announcement came as Musharraf faced pressure from another ex-premier, Benazir Bhutto, to step down as army chief in a proposed power-sharing deal.
Musharraf's spokesman has said that the president is still considering the details of the deal and will not be rushed into making an announcement.
The president, a key ally of the United States in the "war on terror" who ousted Sharif in 1999, has seen his support collapse in recent months.
Protests over his suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry earlier this year have proved damaging, as has the government's inability to quell extremist violence.
Chaudhry, who has since been reinstated, opened the door for Sharif's return last week in a Supreme Court ruling.
But the former premier, who served between 1990 and 1993 and again from 1997 to 1999, was sentenced to life imprisonment on charges including hijacking and terrorism after being removed from office.
And the government has said that Sharif and his brother would face criminal charges if they do come back.
Asked by reporters whether he feared being sent to prison, Sharif said: "Even if he puts me behind the bars, that will not help him", adding that "civil society is already out in the streets".
Sharif condemned the proposed Bhutto deal as "bad for the country" and "very unfortunate".
"This man, Musharraf, is on his way out ... no-one should try to rescue his sinking ship for personal motives," he said.
"There should be no deal for personal motives...the people of Pakistan will not allow that."
He said that Musharraf was "a man who is guilty of subverting the constitution", adding: "We'll fight our battle... on the streets. We'll fight our battle in the courts."
Sharif, 57, appointed Musharraf as Pakistan's army chief in 1998, but the pair fell out over a run-in with nuclear rival India in the disputed region of Kashmir.
Sharif then tried to sack Musharraf whom he suspected of plotting to overthrow him.
But the army stepped in and Sharif left office in a bloodless coup before fleeing to Saudi Arabia in 2000, and later moving to London.
Musharraf said he would have to stay out of the country for 10 years.
While in London, Sharif has held talks with opposition politicians including Pakistan's former cricket captain Imran Khan and representatives from Bhutto's Pakistan's People's Party (PPP) about removing Musharraf from power.
In July, Sharif said at a conference that the grouping of opposition politicians wanted to draw up a "roadmap" to return the country to a constitutional path.
The conference advocated "genuine democracy", "free and fair elections under an interim caretaker government without Musharraf" and an independent judiciary.
- AFP /ls
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