In a dramatic development today, former prime minister and exiled PML(N) leader Nawaz Sharif has been deported to Saudi Arabia. Sharif, who announced his return to Pakistan earlier this month after seven years of exile, was sent back to Saudi Arabia just few hours after his arrival in Pakistan.
He spent around 4 hours at airport, negotiating with Saudi and Pakistani officials. Deportation was certainly one of the options that Government of Pakistan had but not many analysts believed that they would actually go ahead with it. Till the last minute, it appeared from electronic media coverage of the event that Nawaz Sharif will be arrested and jailed and even the arrest warrants were produced and charges were handed over to Nawaz Sharif. We saw visuals of his arrest in which he was man-handled by police officials. But then we heard in a dramatic manner that he is being sent back to Saudi Arabia in a special PIA flight. Now we will see another legal battle if this action is a contempt of Supreme Court of Pakistan’s verdict on Nawaz Sharif’s return in August.
Geo website has this report on the event:
Former Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif was sent back into exile Monday. According to reports he has been sent to Saudi Arabia in a special airplane. Earlier, the flight of former prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif was landed at Islamabad Airport at the scheduled time of 8:42 am Monday morning. The military and security forces troops were deployed at Islamabad airport. In Islamabad, Police and PML-N workers were engaged in hide and seek and scuffles at various places.
Media men were restricted to parking lot of the airport as the airplane of former prime minister landed at the airport. The interior ministry officials and other top officials of the government were present at the airport on the occasion. Mian Nawaz Sharif traveled in the Club Class from London to Islamabad and before landing at Islamabad he went to the economy class to join the party workers.
Geo News correspondent Azhar Javed who was accompanied with Nawaz Sharif in air journey to Islamabad reported that Muslim League workers surrounded their leader and chanted slogans. Mian Nawaz Sharif later taken out of the airplane from backdoor. A flying coach was parked near the plane, which was cordoned off by the police commandoes, Azhar Javed reported. The former prime minister left the plane after 90 minutes and held talks with the government of Pakistan officials and Saudi government representatives. The matter of his returning back into exile to Saudi Arabia was also discussed but Nawaz Sharif opted to be arrested at home instead of going back into exile.
Later he was detained and sent back to Jeddah by a special airplane.
This entire episode raises many questions in the minds of ordinary Pakistanis. Is this violation of SC order? Why didn’t government just arrest him and put him on trial, if there are any cases against him? What will happen now in court and does this mean that government is going ahead with direct confrontation with superior courts? And what it would mean to already growing confrontation between Army and the civil society? We really don’t know. All we can hope, as an ordinary Pakistani, that may Allah have mercy on Pakistan. I am NO fan of Nawaz, Benazir or most of our politicians because of their past performances but I would rather see people of Pakistan deciding their fate through power of ballet and vote and NOT some individuals sitting in President’s House making decisions. I do not see anything good coming out today’s actions and I think its a big setback to rule of law.
One of ATP reader, Saleem A. Taimoor, made a very valid and appropriate comment on my earlier post on Nawaz Sharif return and I personally share his views. Situation in Pakistan today concludes following:
1. Army has been put in direct confrontation with the civil society.
2. People hate to see green lawns and swimming pools inside the army cantonments as well Mercedes for generals on the streets; where over 40% of the people can’t have one day meal, this new elite is eating up all resources – look at the Defense Housing Authorities, posh livnig styles of the army officers and their families, best schools and hospitals run at Income tax payers money; hate has gone deep within the masses for the army not for the general alone. Musharraf has pulled the army in this quagmire.
3. Tens (if not hundreds) of soldiers have died in armed clashes with civilians and in bomb blasts.
4. Media and the judiciary are being put to test with oppressive measures.
5. Government is ready to take on the judiciary now (starting with today’s deportation of Nawaz). Executive is not ready to obey the judiciary.
6. Youth is getting disconnected with Pakistan – all running around for safe havens abroad or for grabbing too much money to join the elite – the social fabric is quickly disintegrating.
7. The parliament is full of people who are unable to comprehend the social disintegration we are going through.
I am sure there are thousands of others who share the same views. Whether you like or dislike Nawaz Sharif or Benazir, both of them should be free to return to this country and allowed to face any charges against them. It is the people of Pakistan who should decide who they want to elect as their representatives and not some army generals who decide our fate in the name of national security. We want Pakistan to be a Social Welfare State and which was the dream of its founding fathers and NOT a National Security State which, unfortunately, it has become now.
As Adnan Siddiqi rightly pointed out in his blog post, there is a sad and brutal side of this story too. Nawaz Sharif landed, arrested and deported. Musharraf stayed in his office while Nawaz either stayed in plane or in lounge then forced to go back to Saudia. All were having fun time. Who suffered then?See yourself?
May Allah have mercy on Pakistan and its 160 million citizens and give our rulers wisdom to make the right decisions. Ameen.
I am surprised by this move. I thought government have 2 choices.
1) Either do not let plane land in first place and divert it to Jaddah. In that case juristictions of SC would had no application.
2) In case plane, landed in Pak, the only remaining choice was to put him in jail for cases. They could have made NS busy with his cases for months.
It is simply peek of confrontation between civil society and Army. It is disaster.
It would have been better if BB and Nawaz were tried in an open court with the nation getting all the evidence against them. But the evidence was kept by the state to blackmail these guys. Obviously, the intent of the state was to keep tabs on them and not justice.
And since BB and Nawaz are again becoming popular, let the people get the leaders they deserve….
Pakistan is following a trajectory that is going to produce more misery for the people and that is unfortunate.
This all shows that thios country is iowned by ARMY. You can break a country (Gen. Yahya) and cant be tried. You sign the Geneva accord and you are history. You build a Steel Mill,get 93,000 troops(brave army men) back start Nuke make a constitution then you are taken to gallows,even then Qaddafi and Arabs wanted Bhutto. You change a COAS and ur govt is toppled. This is an ARMY STATE!
How livid is this allegation of money laundering,if he is a criminal TRY HIM! Pakistans 3 biggest criminals NAWAZ BENAZIR ALTAF are living abroad. The same disgraced GENERAL the so called “savior” of the country (the kargil pussy cat) goes to London and meets ALTAF and then goes to Dubai to meet BENAZIR! and not NAWAZ because he toppled him! Has he got any morality? if u kill a man in pakistan and king of saudia happens to be ur friend, ur ok!
Theres not a difference bw Ayub and Yahya they led to the division of Pakistan, Zia’s killing of Bhutto and Mush’s division of civil society!!!! They are all killers and even worst than the corrupt politicians as u expect this from them,but these lamers come in as angels, act like devils and die like dogs!!!!
I am curious about the original deal that Mr. Sharif made with General Musharraf. The fact is that both former prime ministers (Sharif and Bhutto) were corrupt and had pretty much destroyed Pakistan’s economy. So, regardless of your thoughts about the General, the fact remains that under him Pakistan’s economy has grown stronger.
I have commented previously on the negative impacts of this unchecked growth (bridges collapsing, lack of electricity, greater discrepancy between the rich and the poor), so obviously this growth is not all positive. However, and I really hope that we recognize this, the salvation of Pakistan does not lie with these three leaders. It lies with us, ordinary Pakistanis, and our desire to pick new leaders, those that will tell us the truth, as painful as it might be.
Aamir Ali,
If Musharraf is such a righteous person and interested in bringing the corrupt to justice, why is he making a deal with BB allegedly the more corrupt of the two.
And if NS is a criminal, why not take justice take its course rather than resorting to extrajudicial and extraconstitutional measures.
I still can’t get over the fact that Mush could get such blatant involvement of third countries in our internal matters. Its a open secret that he takes his dictations from US (on record regarding Colin Powell, Richard Armitage, Condi Rice) but such licking of their soles (Richard Boucher) – only two people are capable of this in present times. The two who are willing to stoop to any level to keep or get the chair – BB and Mush.