Defying last-minute pressure from Saudi Arabia not to return to Pakistan, former Premier Nawaz Sharif is set to arrive in Islamabad on Monday after a seven-year exile with a determination to topple President Pervez Musharraf whom he called a “reckless, impulsive dictator.”
57-year-old Sharif, the chief of PML-N party, along with brother Shabaz would return to Islamabad from London at 1130 hrs IST tomorrow, the deposed Premier’s spokesman said.
The Sharifs would leave for Pakistan from Heathrow Airport Terminal III at 0200 hrs IST tomorrow morning on board Gulf Airways flight and arrive at Islamabad airport at 1130 hrs IST, Nadir Chaudhry said in London.
A huge contingent of media persons and people close to the former Prime Minister, who would be travelling with the Sharifs, have been asked to reach the Terminal III of Heathrow Airport, he was quoted as saying by Pakistan’s Geo TV.
The Sunday Telegraph daily in London reported that Sharif has been warned that “there is a prison cell awaiting him when he lands in Islamabad tomorrow morning after prosecutors reopened corruption cases against him and his brother Shahbaz, who also faces murder allegations.”
Sharif told the paper he was in no doubt that the legal moves were just another frantic attempt by Musharraf to stop him from contesting forthcoming parliamentary polls. But, Sharif said he would not be cowed by a “dictator”.
Sharif said “I feel it is my national duty to go back to Pakistan to struggle for the return of democracy and Constitutional rule. This overrides all other considerations. These are cooked up and false cases and we will face it in a court of law. This is what I would expect from Musharraf. He is reckless, impulsive and erratic.”