Throwing a challenge to embattled President Pervez Musharraf's plans for re-election, deposed Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has announced that he will return home from exile on September 10 and take part in the general elections.
"I will land on September 10 at Islamabad airport from where I will go to Lahore via motorway," Sharif told media persons on Thursday, a day after former premier Benazir Bhutto said she is close to finalising a power-sharing deal with Musharraf.
Asserting that Musharraf was 'breathing his last,' Sharif said, "So why he should be supported. The end of the dictatorship is necessary and it will be ended after all."
He said the people were unhappy over the dictatorship and they want the rule of law and Musharraf to go back.
Fifty-seven-year-old Sharif, an arch-rival of Musharraf, was ousted in a bloodless coup eight years ago and sent to exile to Saudi Arabia in 2000. He currently lives in London.
Observing that Bhutto's deal with Musharraf will be 'political death of Benazir,' Sharif, leader of the Pakistan Muslim League (N), said he will fight the general elections.
On the Bhutto-Musharraf negotiations, Sharif said he did not know what dialogue was going on between them. He said he did not understand what Benazir's objectives were.
Analysts said return of Sharif, who served twice as prime minister -- from November 1, 1990 to July 18, 1993 and from February 17, 1997 to October 12, 1999, will mount pressure on Musharraf to restore full democracy and step down.
After he was overthrown in the military coup, Sharif was tried by Pakistan's Anti-Terrorism Courts, which sentenced him to life imprisonment on various counts, including corruption, hijacking and tax evasion.
The government had agreed to commute his sentence from life in prison to exile in Saudi Arabia for at least 10 years.
Musharraf had on Wednesday said that Sharif must honour his commitment with some foreign dignitaries who had negotiated his exile deal.
Bhutto said in a spate of media interviews on Wednesday that she was a 'whisker away' from finalising a deal with Musharraf, which will enable her to return from exile to Pakistan and participate in elections.
She had said Musharraf will make an announcement about the uniform, which will make the people of Pakistan happy, indicating thereby he will shed his uniform.
