Sharif returns to Pakistan

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif returned from exile yesterday to a jubilant welcome and to confront President Pervez Musharraf who has imposed emergency rule in the run-up to a general election.

Mr Sharif, who was overthrown by General Musharraf in a bloodless coup eight years ago, said he was determined to rid Pakistan of "dictatorship".

"I came to serve the people and save Pakistan," Mr Sharif told hundreds of supporters outside the airport in his hometown of Lahore, shortly after arriving back from exile in Saudi Arabia.

Western governments fear that emergency rule and stifling democracy in Pakistan could benefit the cause of Islamist militants threatening the nuclear-armed nation.

Thousands of people lined the road from the airport, cheering and beating drums to welcome Mr Sharif, who arrived with his wife Kulsoom and politician brother Shahbaz Sharif, a fellow exile, on an aircraft provided by the Saudi monarch.

Unpopular and politically isolated, Mr Musharraf now has to contend with two rivals he has spent much of the last eight years trying to marginalise. This was Mr Sharif's second attempt at returning from exile after a first in September ended with his deportation.

But the political atmosphere has changed radically since then with General Musharraf's imposition of an emergency on November 3 and the apparent breakdown of efforts to forge cooperation between Mr Musharraf and Mrs Bhutto.

Mr Sharif will lead his party in the election if he decides to take part in a poll many people doubt will be free or fair.

Hundreds of people managed to breach a security cordon around Lahore airport, although police with riot shields, batons and rifles had been deployed.

Police detained thousands of Mr Sharif's supporters prior to his arrival, according to party loyalists.

But a throng of well-wishers clapped and danced as they waved portraits, placards and party flags as he emerged from the airport terminal.

"I have no lust for any post or power," Mr Sharif, dressed in traditional white shalwar kameez and black waistcoat told the crowd outside the terminal as he mopped his brow. He was carried aloft to a car for the drive into town.

"We want democracy and nothing else," he told the BBC by telephone. "I am here to play my role and also make my own efforts to rid the country of dictatorship." Mr Sharif plans to discuss a possible election boycott with the other main opposition party, led by Mrs Bhutto.

Mrs Bhutto welcomed Mr Sharif's return as she filed her nomination papers in Sindh province.

"God willing, an election will be held and People's Party and the people will win," Mrs Bhutto told reporters.

Mr Musharraf co-opted the rump of Mr Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League after ousting him. Leaders of the ruling PML faction fear many of their party may now defect back to Mr Sharif.

Resigned to Mr Sharif's return, President Musharraf hopes the former prime minister's party will take part in the election, so its questionable credibility will not be further eroded by a boycott, according to a presidential aide.

The General secured his own second five-year term by using emergency powers to purge Supreme Court judges who might have annulled his re-election by parliament last month.

He is expected to quit as army chief and take his oath as a civilian leader in the coming days.