Pakistan News And Discussion-12

[Naresh]

[center]<b><span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Nawaz Sharif arrested at Islamabad airport</span></b>[/center]

<b>ISLAMABAD : Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who arrived home on Monday after seven years in exile, was arrested at the Islamabad airport, following his refusal to hand over his passport to immigration authorities.

He was not allowed to disembark from the PIA plane which was surrounded by commandos.</b>

As soon as the aircraft landed, a senior army officer along with a group of officials was seen entering the plane for discussing various "options" with the PML-N leader.

All other passengers were allowed to come out of the plane.

Immigration authorities asked Sharif to hand them over his passport but he refused to do so, journalists travelling with Sharif from London, said.

<b><span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Cabinet Ministers say that Sharif will be given an option of being deported or being jailed.</span></b>

Journalists on board the plane said Sharif prefers remaining in Pakistan instead of being deported.

There was undeclared curfew at the Islamabad airport and outside areas with security forces closing all roads to the airport and arresting top opposition leaders and hundreds of activists to foil plan to accord warm welcome to Sharif.

The Pakistan International Airlines plane PK-786, carrying the exiled leader landed at Islamabad International Airport at 9:15 AM IST.

Sharif, whose government was overthrown in a military coup led by General Pervez Musharraf in 1999, and was sent into exile one year later, announced his decision to return home last month.

<b>On August 23, Pakistan's Supreme Court ruled that the Sharifs "have an inalienable right to enter and remain in country, as citizens of Pakistan" under Article 15 of the Pakistani Constitution.

<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>"Their entry into the country shall not be restrained, hampered or obstructed by federal or provincial government agencies, in any manner," a seven-member Bench of the court said in a unanimous decision.</span></b>

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