Pakistan further destablized, chances of overthrow increasing, curfew in effect,

[silver 2039]

Nawaz Sharif arrested at Islamabad airport

ISLAMABAD: Former Pakistan premier Nawaz Sharif was detained over corruption charges after returning from seven years in exile on Monday and is being moved to prison from the airport by helicopter, officials said.

"Nawaz Sharif is under pre-emptive arrest in connection with corruption charges against him," Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid, a close confidant of President Pervez Musharraf, said without elaborating.

Officials said Sharif was taken by helicopter from the airport to a jail in north-western Pakistan.

"The Home Secretary of Punjab (province) has issued an order to place Nawaz Sharif under protective custody for 30 days in Attock fort prison under the maintenance of public order ordinance," a government official said.

A security official said police had taken Sharif into protective custody "soon after completion of immigration formalities" following his arrival in Islamabad early on Monday on a flight from London.

Sharif faced cases of graft lodged by the country's anti-corruption body, the National Accountability Bureau, and other police cases, Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi told private television.

Sharif, who arrived home on Monday after seven years in exile, was arrested at the Islamabad airport, following his refusal to hand over his passport to immigration authorities.

He was not allowed to disembark from the PIA plane which was surrounded by commandos.

As soon as the aircraft landed, a senior army officer along with a group of officials was seen entering the plane for discussing various "options" with the PML-N leader.

All other passengers were allowed to come out of the plane.

Journalists on board the plane said Sharif prefers remaining in Pakistan instead of being deported.

There was undeclared curfew at the Islamabad airport and outside areas with security forces closing all roads to the airport and arresting top opposition leaders and hundreds of activists to foil plan to accord warm welcome to Sharif.

The Pakistan International Airlines plane PK-786, carrying the exiled leader landed at Islamabad International Airport at 9:15 AM IST.

Sharif, whose government was overthrown in a military coup led by General Pervez Musharraf in 1999, and was sent into exile one year later, announced his decision to return home last month.

On August 23, Pakistan's Supreme Court ruled that the Sharifs "have an inalienable right to enter and remain in country, as citizens of Pakistan" under Article 15 of the Pakistani Constitution.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2354693.cms

Thats what they said first. But then I guess they decided he was too dangerous to remain in the country.

Nawaz Sharif deported to Saudi Arabia

ISLAMABAD: Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was deported to Saudi Arabia on Monday, hours after his dramatic return to the country from a seven-year exile with the hope of posing a political challenge to President Pervez Musharraf.

After over five hours of high drama, Sharif, who arrived here from London on Monday morning to end his exile, has been deported to Jeddah once again where he spent six years from 2000, officials said.

On his arrival, a team of Saudi and Pakistan officials held prolonged negotiations with him, asking him to honour an agreement he signed with Saudi government to stay out of Pakistan for 10 years from 2000 following which he and his family were sent to Jeddah.

Sharif, 57, was arrested on corruption charges after being kept at the aircraft for nearly 90 minutes when only passengers were allowed to disembark.

He was soon whisked away to an undisclosed location in a helicopter and it was soon officially confirmed that he had been deported to Jeddah by a special plane.

Sharif, whose government was overthrown in a military coup led by General Pervez Musharraf in 1999, and was sent into exile one year later, had announced his decision to return home last month.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2355062.cms

And of course this is incomplete without the customary violence.

Sharif supporters, police clash in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani police arrested key supporters of former premier Nawaz Sharif and clashed with around 100 others as they tried to reach Islamabad airport to welcome him on his return from exile.

The activists from Sharif's faction of the Pakistan Muslim League party had their cars halted by police about five kilometres (three miles) from the airport and then tried to walk.

Police hit some people with sticks and arrested dozens of senior party members including Zafar Iqbal Jhagra, the party's secretary general, the reporter witnessed.

They also detained leaders of several nationalist parties. More than 1,000 police were deployed to seal off the airport as Sharif's flight from London touched down early on Monday.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...ice_clash_in_Pakistan/articleshow/2354315.cms

Anyway the situation has been deteriorating severely. Here's a recap on recent events:

Chronology of Pakistan's political crisis

ISLAMABAD: Former Pakistan Premier Nawaz Sharif returned from exile on Monday, dramatically escalating the political crisis facing President Pervez Musharraf ahead of crucial elections.

The country has been in turmoil since Musharraf, who ousted Sharif in a 1999 coup, tried to sack Pakistan's Chief Justice in March, sparking mass protests. Here is a chronology of events:

March 9: Musharraf asks Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry to resign over allegations of misconduct. Chaudhry refuses.

March 10-12: Lawyers hold nationwide protests, the first in a series of demonstrations across the country.

March 16: Police fire rubber bullets and tear gas at thousands of opposition supporters in Islamabad and smash up studios of a private television station.

March 26: First joint protests organised by the parties of exiled former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif.

May 5-6: Thousands cheer Chaudhry's motorcade from Islamabad to Lahore, where he declares to a huge crowd that the "era of dictatorship is over." Similar trips to other cities follow in May and June.

May 12-13: Forty-three people killed after government supporters prevent Chaudhry from attending a rally in the southern port city of Karachi. Strikes called afterwards paralyse much of the country.

June 4: Musharraf imposes tough new rules on broadcasters, sparking protests by journalists. Musharraf lifts the clampdown three days later.

July 3-10: Pakistani troops besiege the pro-Taliban Red Mosque in Islamabad, then storm the building a week later. More than 100 people die during the course of the crisis.

July 17: Suicide bomber kills 17 at a rally by Chaudhry in Islamabad, one of around a dozen suicide blasts sparked by the Red Mosque showdown.

July 20: Supreme Court reinstates Chaudhry and quashes the charges against him.

Bhutto and Musharraf hold secret meeting in Abu Dhabi on a possible power-sharing deal to sideline Sharif.

August 9: Musharraf decides against imposing state of emergency nationwide following pressure from Washington.

Aug 23: Supreme Court rules Sharif can return from exile.

Aug 30: Sharif announces he will return to Pakistan on September 10.

Sept 1: Bhutto says she has not reached a deal with Musharraf and that she will announce a date for her return to Pakistan on September 14.

Sept 5: Bhutto calls for meeting with Musharraf after talks restart.

Sept 7: Court orders arrest of Sharif's brother Shahbaz on murder charges. Government asks another court to grant arrest warrant for Nawaz on corruption charges.

Sept 8: Saad Hariri, son of assassinated former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri, and Saudi intelligence chief Muqrin bin Abdul Aziz say Sharif must honour deal that sent him into exile seven years ago, and stay out of the country until 2010.

Police arrest hundreds of Sharif's supporters.

Sept 10: Sharif's plane from London touches down at Islamabad airport.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2354371.cms

So any thoughts on this? Mushaaraff's grip on power is weakening, he's looesing support there's increasing dissent and agitation. He may be overthrown soon.

Any thoughts?

 

[JohnRM]

On the contrary, it sounds like Musharraf is keeping an iron grip on his power.

 

[silver 2039]

On the contrary, it sounds like Musharraf is keeping an iron grip on his power.

The military and the the intelligence services support him still. But he's lost a lot if not all population support he once had. And I suspect the military itself is growing increasingly unhappy with him. The fundamentalists were once his allies but are now completely his enemies and many of them were originally aided and set up by the military and ISI. And there are known fundamentalists in the ISI and military.

 

[cubsfan6506]

We should really send off our ex felon presidents into exile. I can see it now Nixon in exile in the Dominican Republic.

 

[The Yankee]

Nixon's already passed on.

But it seems that Musharraf is getting desperate to keep his hold on there. I mean, possibility of a deal with Bhutto? This case with Sharif? Smells like desperation to me.

 

[cubsfan6506]

Nixon's already passed on.

I know I was saying in the past.

 

[druidravi]

I knew Musharraf rein will end some time but was afraid of the power vacum being created could lead to extremist Islamic parties filling. And Pakistan as all know has nukes .

But recent developments are good the opposition being led my lawyers and then relatively secular political parties rather than Islamic groups . Seems like some democratic roots slowly being planted. I would much rather see a corrupt but realistic politician in charge than some wacko relegious group in charge. Particularly when a country has nukes.

 

[cubsfan6506]

Comin from an indian.

 

[Godwynn]

Comin from an indian.

That doesn't invalidate his point.

 

[Irish Caesar]

Is this unrest due to Mr. Musharraf's newfound unpopularity, or the last president's popularity? If the former, how has Musharraf stayed in power so long; alternately, does unpopularity matter as long as he controls the military; finally, what is stopping the military from simply dumping him if they're fed up with him, now, too?

 

[Phlegmak]

Comin from an indian.

I don't understand what you are trying to imply.

 

[Che Guava]

Is this unrest due to Mr. Musharraf's newfound unpopularity, or the last president's popularity?

President Musharraf's popularity has been going downhill lately mostly due to his own mistakes. He has mismanaged the economy, done little to alleviate conditions for the poor, has made some questionable appointments, and has even managed to tick of the pious muslims who used to make up his support base...

does unpopularity matter as long as he controls the military;

As long as he has the military, few can really openly contest his supremacy, but that's a bit of an 'if'...

finally, what is stopping the military from simply dumping him if they're fed up with him, now, too?

Breaking the chain of command and commiting a coup can be...messy, to say the least! I think that his generals are first going to wait to see if Musharraf has enough sense to peaceably remove himself from power...

 

[MobBoss]

We should really send off our ex felon presidents into exile. I can see it now Nixon in exile in the Dominican Republic.

Nixon was never a felon.

 

[skadistic]

Nixon was never a felon.

G. Gordon Lidy was.

 

[Tee Kay]

On the contrary, it sounds like Musharraf is keeping an iron grip on his power.

The Soviet Bolshevik Party pretty much old an iron grip on power when the Soviet Union collapsed. From the outside it looked like Pakistan is stablising under a tough ruler, but that doesn't mean it's what's actually happening.