Sharif Vows to End Dictatorship

Ex-PM lands in Lahore amid thousands of supporters, will file nomination papers
By Caroline Zimmerman,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 25, 2007 10:31 AM CST
Sharif Vows to End Dictatorship
Pakistan's former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif waves to his supporters at Lahore airport in Pakistan after returning from exile on Sunday, Nov. 25, 2007. Sharif returned home to a chaotic and jubilant welcome Sunday, and wasted little time taking the fight to the man who ousted him, saying emergency...   (Associated Press)

Former Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif touched down in Lahore after eight years in exile and, amid the cheers of thousands, vowed to end the dictatorship of President Pervez Musharraf: "We want democracy and nothing else."  Musharraf blocked Sharif's last  attempted return, in September, deporting him before he made it out of the airport, but this time bowed to Saudi pressure.

Sharif was to discuss a boycott of the upcoming January 8 elections with Pakistan's other key opposition leader and recently-returned ex-PM, Benazir Bhutto, who recently failed in attempts to forge a power-sharing deal with Musharraf, but the Times of India reports that both are to file nomination papers tomorrow. The elections, already considered questionable under emergency rule, would lose all credibility if both leaders boycott. (More Pervez Musharraf stories.)

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