Former PM Sharif Returns to Pakistan
SLOBODAN LEKIC | November 25, 2007 01:05 PM EST | AP
LAHORE, Pakistan — Exiled former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif returned home to a hero's welcome Sunday and called on President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to end emergency rule before elections, a fresh challenge to the U.S.-backed leader.
"These (emergency) conditions are not conducive to free and fair elections," Sharif told reporters at the airport after arriving from Saudi Arabia. "I think the constitution of Pakistan should be restored, and there should be rule of law."
Sharif, the head of one of the country's main opposition parties, said he had not negotiated his return with Musharraf, who overthrew him in a 1999 coup. Musharraf expelled Sharif when he first tried come back to Pakistan this year.
"My return is not the result of any deal," Sharif told reporters. "My life and death are for Pakistan."
Thousands of frenzied supporters pushed past police barricades into the airport in this eastern city, carrying Sharif and his brother on their shoulders and cheering wildly as Sharif stood among them on a raised platform. An armored car carrying Sharif left the airport on a procession toward a shrine in the center of the city, surrounded by screaming supporters.
Musharraf has grown increasingly unpopular since he declared a state of emergency on Nov. 3, locking up thousands of opponents, purging the Supreme Court and muzzling the media.
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