Sharif to return to Pakistan

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Exiled former prime minister Nawaz Sharif is set to return to Pakistan within days after a deal to end his exile in Saudi Arabia, aides said on Friday.

It was not immediately clear whether Sharif, whom President Pervez Musharraf deposed in a bloodless 1999 coup, would get back before November 26, deadline for filing election nominations, and so be able to run for parliament in polls set for January 8.

He was due to meet King Abdullah in Riyadh for a "farewell meeting" before flying to London, Sharif's political base for the latter part of his exile, a Saudi government source said.

Musharraf, under intense criticism at home and abroad for imposing emergency rule three weeks ago, agreed to Sharif's return during discussions with King Abdullah, according to a leader of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML).

The Commonwealth has suspended Pakistan's membership of the grouping of mostly former British colonies, underlining the pressure Musharraf has been under since invoking emergency powers to shore up his presidency.

Western governments fear that stifling democracy could benefit Islamist militants threatening nuclear-armed Pakistan.

Politically isolated, Musharraf paid a surprise visit to Riyadh on Tuesday, sparking speculation that he was reaching out to his old foe Sharif, who was deported after he tried to return from exile in September.

"God willing, he will return in a few days," said Raja Zafar-ul-Haq, chairman of the Nawaz League as Sharif's faction of the PML is known.

The party was set to meet on Saturday to decide his return date, expected to be within four or five days, a spokesman said.

DEFECTIONS LIKELY

Musharraf imposed a two-term limit on the prime ministership in 2002, which currently bars both Sharif and opposition leader Benazir Bhutto from another stint.

Bhutto flew to Islamabad from the southern city of Karachi on Friday to meet her party leadership. She made no comment.

Having spent eight years trying to marginalise Sharif, and allowing Bhutto back last month, Musharraf appears to have admitted his failure to re-engineer Pakistan's polity, split by the coup that ended a decade of chaotic civilian rule.

Musharraf co-opted the rump of Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League after ousting him. Confusingly there are now two PMLs, although Sharif's is usually referred to as the Nawaz League.

Aaj Television quoted Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, leader of the ruling PML, as saying that the party was not scared that its former boss was coming back, although political commentators believe many of his party could flock to Sharif.

News that Sharif would soon return, and talk that the emergency might soon be lifted, buoyed the Karachi stock market, which rose 1.4 percent. It has now clawed back much of the six percent it shed after emergency rule began on November3.

But many ordinary Pakistanis are despondent.

"(Sharif's) return will make no difference because no system is working here," said Sehar Ali, a schoolteacher.

A Supreme Court packed with government-friendly judges finally gave Musharraf satisfaction on Thursday, denying the last challenge to his October re-election to the presidency.

Musharraf has already started to roll back the emergency, releasing some 5,000 opposition activists and lawyers detained after it was imposed. Private TV channel ARYone World resumed broadcasting on Friday after being suspended along with others amid stiff media curbs.

However, the crackdown continued in Karachi, where police used batons to break up protests by opposition supporters. About 50 people were detained and several hurt, witnesses said.

(With reporting by Sahar Ahmed and Robert Birsel in KARACHI, Augustine Anthony in ISLAMABAD, Andrew Hammond in RIYADH and Adrian Croft in KAMPALA. Writing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Simon Gardner; editing by Robert Hart)