Sharif joins election battlefield

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LAHORE, Nov 26 (AFP): Pakistan's ex-premier Nawaz Sharif prepared Monday to file his papers for general elections, moving to capitalise on his political momentum after returning from exile to a hero's welcome.
After a procession from the airport to his city residence that turned into an all-night party, Sharif spent a few hours recuperating and consulting with family and senior party officials.
He flew home with a defiant message for President Pervez Musharraf -- who ousted him in a coup in 1999 -- to end a state of emergency now in its fourth week.
"Musharraf has brought Pakistan to the verge of disaster," he told a crowd of supporters at a shrine to Lahore's guardian saint, after vowing to rid the country of dictatorship.
At midday, aides said, he would lodge his nomination papers for the January 8 vote at a courthouse in the eastern city that is his political fiefdom.
Sharif's return, just over a month after another ex-premier Benazir Bhutto flew home from exile, ratchets up the pressure on Musharraf to end emergency rule.
The military ruler has until December 1 to hang up his uniform and swear a new oath as a civilian leader after a purged Supreme Court rubber-stamped his presidency for another five years.
Attorney General Malik Mohammad Qayyum told state television that Musharraf would take the oath Thursday.
Qayyum was sick and not returning calls Monday, his office said.
Sharif's return throws Pakistan's political power-struggle wide open with the opposition divided as to whether to boycott the general elections.
If he forms a proposed alliance with Bhutto he could cause major problems for Musharraf and secure defections from the president's ruling party.
But Musharraf's willingness to allow Sharif to return may indicate that the president hopes to split the opposition vote.
Sharif denied any such understanding: "I have made no deal with Musharraf, my deal is with the people of Pakistan," he repeated Sunday.
Nevertheless, he and Bhutto are both two-time premiers and have been bitter rivals in the past, and while they have been talking about formulating a joint anti-Musharraf strategy, analysts doubt their alliance will stand the test of time.
Sharif is a religious conservative while Bhutto, a secular leader, is seen by the United States -- keen to preserve Pakistan's role in the fight against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban -- as pro-Western.
More crucial is the question of whether Sharif and Bhutto will boycott the election as they have threatened.
Staying away would rob Musharraf of the chance to portray the election to his critics around the world as evidence he is moving the country back toward democracy.
Taking part, opponents say, would be tantamount to legitimising emergency rule.
Sharif and Bhutto both appear to accept they have to file nomination papers by Monday's noon deadline pending any future decision to boycott.
Bhutto was at her family's ancestral home of Larkana on Monday lodging her nominations, after earlier applying for a women-only seat in Karachi.
Sharif hinted at taking part in the election, talking of it as a chance to 'humiliate' those who have supported Musharraf's 'dictatorship'.
However, Qayyum warned earlier that Sharif could be ineligible because he had been sentenced to life in jail on corruption and hijacking charges before he was banished in 2000.
"As the election law stands today, it is highly doubtful that Nawaz Sharif can contest elections," he told Dawn television.
The hijacking case relates to Sharif's alleged attempts in October 1999 to stop a plane carrying Musharraf, his army chief at the time, from landing in Pakistan.
It was that action that prompted Musharraf to topple Sharif.