Ex-PM vows Pakistan return to challenge Musharraf

ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf faced mounting political pressure Friday after two-time former premier Nawaz Sharif, the man he ousted in a coup, vowed to return to contest elections.

The Supreme Court here ruled Thursday that Sharif can return from exile, a landmark verdict he hailed as "a defeat for tyranny."

It threatens to deepen Pakistan's political instability, with Musharraf, a key US ally, already under fierce domestic and international pressure not to stand for re-election as president-in-uniform in the months ahead.

He is also facing growing Al-Qaeda-linked violence that has brought a wave of bloody extremist attacks in the capital and restive tribal regions close to the border with Afghanistan.

Benazir Bhutto, another former prime minister, has also said she wants to return to contest general elections due by early 1998.

Sharif and his family went into exile in Saudi Arabia in 2000, a year after Musharraf ousted him and had him sentenced to life in prison on hijacking, tax evasion and treason charges.

The Supreme Court ruling was greeted with jubilation by his supporters who danced and sacrificed goats, chanting "Go Musharraf, go!" and "Musharraf is a dog!"

"They have an inalienable right to return and remain in the country as citizens of Pakistan," Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry said in his judgement, referring to the former leader and his brother Shahbaz Sharif.