| |
ISLAMABAD - Former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif insisted Saturday he would still return to his homeland early next week despite further pressure for him to stay in London.
Sharif is set to return to Pakistan Monday after winning a Supreme Court battle in August which cleared the way for him to go back with his brother, Shahbaz.
Saudi Arabia and an influential Lebanese politician Saturday joined calls by Pakistan for Sharif to scrap plans to return.
Saad Hariri, son of assassinated former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri, and Saudi intelligence chief Muqrin bin Abdul Aziz said Sharif must honour the deal that sent him into exile seven years ago.
"Nawaz Sharif must honour his commitment," Hariri told reporters after a meeting with President Pervez Musharraf.
"Such (an) agreement was made to facilitate and ensure the stability of Pakistan," Hariri said.
"For the sake of the national interest of Pakistan we hope that he will honour and adhere to the terms of the agreement," the Saudi intelligence chief added.
But Sharif was defiant that he would return as planned during a press conference in London.
"I and my brother Shahbaz are going back to Pakistan on September 10 and that will be the day of peoples' victory," Sharif said.
He demanded that Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf stop trying to block his way, asking: "Why is Musharraf so afraid that he is putting the country's solidarity at stake by involving the brotherly country of Saudi Arabia?"
And Sharif said it was Musharraf, not he, who had breached the terms of the deal.
"Today he is accusing me of breaching the contract when in fact he is the one who broke the constitutional pledge that he took when he was appointed as the army chief," he told reporters.
"I am a Pakistani and it is my mission to go to Pakistan and save my country from the current turmoil and chaos."
Hariri arrived here early Saturday following a London meeting with Sharif, who was toppled in Musharraf's 1999 military coup.
Hariri said his family was involved in the Saudi-brokered 2000 exile deal which compelled Sharif to live in oil-rich Middle East country.
Sharif was sentenced to life in prison on tax evasion and treason charges but released in December 2000 on condition that he and his family live in exile in Saudi Arabia for 10 years.
"The custodian of the two Holy Mosques helped the Sharif family to get out of imprisonment under such agreement," Hariri said, referring to Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah.
When asked about the details of the agreement, the intelligence chief said: "He knows it, President Pervez Musharraf knows it and most of the people of Pakistan know it."
Sharif and his younger brother Shahbaz, who left Saudi Arabia for London last year, won a Supreme Court battle in August against their banishment and said they were returning home to challenge Musharraf.
Sharif has denied any agreement exists, and a spokesman for his party ruled out any change in his plans to return.
"He is returning under the verdict of the Supreme Court of Pakistan," central information secretary Ahsan Iqbal told AFP.
Iqbal criticised Musharraf's attempts to involve Saudi Arabia in the internal politics, saying it would have "serious implications" for relations between the two countries.
"He (Musharraf) is talking to Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan Peoples Party but he is afraid of our leader," he said.
Musharraf, facing his worst political crisis at home, has asked Sharif to abide by the agreement as his return would destabilise the political environment ahead of general elections expected in next five months.
"They should honour their commitment. Their commitment was with the leadership of a third country which has very close ties with Pakistan," Pakistan Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani told AFP on Saturday.
"If Nawaz Sharif breaks this commitment he will create a bad perception about Pakistan in the Middle East."
The planned return of the brothers, coupled with Sharif's growing popularity at home, has added to the pressure on military ruler Musharraf.
An apparently nervous government has ordered a police crackdown against Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz workers and party leaders claim hundreds have been arrested in different parts of the country.
The party alleged the crackdown was aimed at disrupting plans to celebrate the return of the Sharifs.
An anti-terrorism court Friday ordered the arrest of Shahbaz in a murder case and the government asked another court to grant an arrest warrant for Nawaz on corruption charges.
- AFP /ls
|
