Former prime minister returns to Pakistan

LAHORE, Pakistan -- Exiled former prime minister Nawaz Sharif returned home to a hero's welcome Sunday and called on President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to end emergency rule before elections, a fresh challenge to the U.S.-backed leader.

"These [emergency] conditions are not conducive to free and fair elections," Sharif told reporters at the airport after arriving from Saudi Arabia. "I think the constitution of Pakistan should be restored, and there should be rule of law."

Sharif, the head of one of the country's main opposition parties, said he had not negotiated his return with Musharraf, who overthrew him in a 1999 coup. Musharraf expelled Sharif when he first tried come back to Pakistan this year.

"My return is not the result of any deal," Sharif told reporters. "My life and death are for Pakistan."

Thousands of frenzied supporters pushed past police barricades into the airport in this eastern city, carrying Sharif and his brother on their shoulders and cheering wildly as Sharif stood among them on a raised platform. An armored car carrying Sharif left the airport on a procession toward a shrine in the center of the city, surrounded by screaming supporters.

Musharraf's rule

Musharraf has grown increasingly unpopular since he declared a state of emergency on Nov. 3, locking up thousands of opponents, purging the Supreme Court and muzzling the media.

If Sharif and other opposition parties refuse to take part in parliamentary elections slated for January, it would undermine Musharraf's claim to be taking the country back toward democracy. Equally tricky for Musharraf would be an alliance between Sharif and another recently returned prime minister, Benazir Bhutto.

"If they come to us with a proposal of any electoral alliance, we will consider this positively," Bhutto said aboard a flight from Karachi to her hometown of Larkana, in southern Pakistan. "I welcome him home."

A spokesman for Sharif's part said he, his brother and his wife will all file papers today that would allow them to run if they choose to do so.

The presidential spokesman was not available Sunday for comment on Sharif's return.

Welcoming Sharif

The scene at Lahore airport was eerily reminiscent of the early jubilation that greeted Bhutto when she came back to her home city of Karachi in October, but the number of supporters was far lower. Bhutto's return was greeted by a massive suicide bomb which killed about 150 people in a procession through the streets.

In a reminder that Pakistan remains under emergency rule, security forces had rounded up some Sharif activists and attempted to seal off the airport.

But the supporters who found their way through tight security swarmed into the terminal building waving the green flag of his party and shouting slogans including "Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif!" and "Go, Musharraf, go!"

Police lifted batons to drive them back from the arrival area, but had no space to swing them amid the dancing, jubilant crowds.

Television footage showed Sharif, dressed in his trademark white shirt and a dark waistcoat, on an airport stairwell next to his brother, also a politician, and surrounded by security officials, waving to the cameras.

Tight security that had surrounded Sharif after his plane touched down appeared to melt away amid the chaos.

Both Bhutto and Sharif have been seeking to return to power after the parliamentary elections. But the ballot, which the West hopes will produce a moderate government able to stand up to Islamic extremism, has been thrown into confusion by Musharraf's seizure of emergency powers.

Major opposition parties -- including Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party -- have been lining up to take part in the elections with preliminary steps such as filing nomination papers.