One of Nawaz Sharif's aides produced a sleek looking satellite phone. Someone else offered a Thuraya. Nothing worked. As the passengers left the plane, Nawaz Sharif's cheeks glowed like polished apples, his familiar bald patch glistened under his newly transplanted hair. He positioned himself in the middle of the Economy cabin hoping that when they come, and it was always inevitable that they would come, they would have to negotiate about fifty journalists from the world press and about a dozen very motivated supporters.
One of his bodyguards, who looked like a bouncer from one of Brimingham's tough pubs, stood behind Nawaz Sharif. His supporters chanted 'Go Musharraf Go', a slogan coined during the recent lawyers' movement and a rather literal expression of the general mood in Pakistan. Someone recited 'Sarafroshi ki Tamanna, in true Rang de Basanti mode. Nawaz Sharif's supporters were high on passion but low on planning.
Should he disembark from the plane or not? Should he hand over his passport to the immigration officials? Or as one of his bearded colleagues suggested, should they just stay on the aeroplane and pray for Pakistan? These debates raged in the middle of the Economy cabin as the Elite Force surrounded the plane.
Someone worried that the authorities might switch off the air-conditioning.
Photograph: Pakistani policemen arrest Nawaz Sharif's supporters during a clash in Islamabad, September 10. Baton-wielding police clashed with around Sharif's supporters and arrested key members of his party as he returned, while security forces threw up a five-kilometre security cordon around Islamabad airport. Photograph: Aamir Qureshi/AFP/Getty Images
Also read: Images: Unrest across Pakistan
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