Nawaz Sharif set for stormy welcome home

New Delhi: Defying last-minute pressure from Saudi Arabia not to return to Pakistan, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif is set to arrive in Islamabad on Monday after a seven-year exile with a determination to topple President Pervez Musharraf whom he called a 'reckless, impulsive dictator'.

Nawaz Sharif is said to be booked for Monday on multiple flights out of London to Islamabad.

“Musharraf is threatening with dire consequences. Sometimes he says he will take me to jail from Islamabad airport. Sometimes there is news that a special cell is being prepared in a fort for me. All these stories are coming out in the press. I watched them on TV. But I am not deterred,” Sharif told CNN-IBN in an interview.

Fifty-seven-year-old Sharif, the chief of PML-N party, along with brother Shabaz would return to Islamabad from London at 1130 hrs IST on Monday, the deposed premier's spokesman said.

The Sharifs would leave for Pakistan from Heathrow Airport Terminal III at 0200 hrs IST on Monday morning on board Gulf Airways flight and arrive at Islamabad airport at 1130 hrs IST, Nadir Chaudhry said in London.

A huge contingent of media persons and people close to the former prime minister, who would be travelling with the Sharifs, have been asked to reach the Terminal III of HeathrowAirport, he was quoted as saying by Pakistan's Geo TV.

The Sunday Telegraph daily in London reported that Sharif has been warned that "there is a prison cell awaiting him when he lands in Islamabad on Monday morning after prosecutors reopened corruption cases against him and his brother Shahbaz, who also faces murder allegations."

Sharif told the paper that he was in no doubt that the legal moves were just another frantic attempt by Gen Musharraf to stop him from contesting forthcoming parliamentary polls. But, Sharif said he would not be cowed by a 'dictator'.

"I feel it is my national duty to go back to Pakistan to struggle for the return of democracy and Constitutional rule. This overrides all other considerations. These are cooked up and false cases and we will face it in a court of law. This is what I would expect from Musharraf. He is reckless, impulsive and erratic," he said.

(With PTI inputs from London and Islamabad)