Pakistan put all airports on high alert and detained hundreds of opposition activists Sunday as former premier Nawaz Sharif prepared to fly home from exile to challenge President Pervez Musharraf. "I and my brother Shahbaz are going back to Pakistan on September 10 and that will be the day of the people's victory," Sharif told a news conference in London on Saturday.
Sharif was due to leave London's Heathrow airport at 1930 GMT Sunday to return to Islamabad, via Muscat, arriving in the Pakistani capital at 11:45 am (0645 GMT) on Monday, his spokesman Nadir Chaudhry said.
"His plan is to go back to play his role in Pakistani politics, which is his right," Chaudhry told AFP. "He's head of his own party. Elections are coming up. He will mobilise his party for those elections."
The Pakistani government on Sunday placed all major airports on high alert, an airport security official told AFP, amid speculation that Sharif may try to land somewhere other than Islamabad or be diverted by the government.
A senior Pakistani cabinet minister told AFP that the Saudi comments meant the government "now has the justification to send him back to Saudi Arabia if he defies the agreement and flies into Pakistan." One Middle Eastern diplomat told AFP that the Saudis would support such a decision. Another option is to arrest Sharif.
Media reports say a cell in a centuries-old fort has been prepared for his possible arrival, but such an option risks sparking mass protests. "He's not worried about that. He'll face any charges in court," said Sharif's spokesman.
With growing public support behind him, Sharif is a potential obstacle to a power-sharing deal that Musharraf is trying to reach with another former Premier, Benazir Bhutto, which could see the President quit the army.
An apparently nervous administration has ordered a police crackdown against workers from Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party. Party leaders claim more than 2,000 have been arrested.
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