Exiled PM due back in Pakistan
Updated on 09 September 2007
Exiled former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif is due to arrive in the capital Islamabad on Monday after seven years of exile.
He is vowing to challenge military leader President Pervez Musharraf.
Army chief General Musharraf overthrew Mr Sharif in a 1999 coup.
The former PM was later given a life sentence on a hijacking charge related to his refusal to allow landing rights to an airliner carrying Gen Musharraf, despite its being short of fuel.
He was allowed to go into exile in Saudi Arabia in 2000 after the government says he agreed to stay out of the country for 10 years in a deal guaranteed by Saudi Arabia.
The Supreme Court ruled on August 23 that Mr Sharif and his politician brother, Shahbaz, had the right to come back and the government should not stop them.
Mr Sharif had denied any exile deal with the government but said in London on Saturday he understood the agreement was for five years' exile.
His bitter rival Benazir Bhutto, also a former prime minister, is also set to return to Pakistan soon.
She has been trying to secure a power-sharing deal with Gen Musharraf.
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