Tuesday, 11 September 2007
Allies of Pakistani ex-PM Nawaz Sharif say they will pursue his campaign against military rule despite his expulsion on his return from exile.
They said they were planning a day of protest across the country for Tuesday.
Mr Sharif was deported within hours of arriving at Islamabad airport, after being charged with money laundering, and put on a plane to Saudi Arabia.
He says he wants to challenge Gen Pervez Musharraf, who ousted him in a 1999 coup, in elections this year.
Mr Sharif had travelled to Pakistan weeks after the country's Supreme Court affirmed his right to return.
'Clinging to power'
The former cricketer, Imran Khan, leader of an opposition party, said Gen Musharraf's days were numbered.
"General Musharraf, if you think that by sending Nawaz Sharif to Saudi Arabia you can save your skin, you better stop fooling yourself," he said.
"One man, to stay in power, is willing to destroy every institution, violate every law of the country, desecrate the constitution, only to stay in power. And that's why I think the whole country will unite in the movement against him."
Pakistan's deputy minister of information says Mr Sharif opted to leave Pakistan rather than be prosecuted for corruption, but the opposition says he was illegally expelled.
Pakistani troops surrounded his plane after it landed.
There was a stand-off on board as he refused to hand over his passport to immigration officials for nearly two hours.
Eventually he agreed to leave the plane and was escorted to the airport's VIP lounge.
But shortly afterwards he was separated from his entourage, charged with money laundering and corruption, and flown to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.
Shots fired
Large numbers of police had set up barricades on roads to prevent Mr Sharif's supporters from reaching the airport on Monday.
There were reports of clashes between police and crowds of Mr Sharif's supporters in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, and Attok, where shots were fired and several people were said to have been injured.
One worker from Mr Sharif's Muslim League party (PML-N) told the BBC he and about 20 others had been badly beaten by police outside the airport.
Mr Sharif was exiled to Saudi Arabia in 2000 after being deposed, under what the government says was an agreement that he stay in exile for 10 years.
The former prime minister has denied there was ever such a deal.
Another former Pakistani Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, has said Mr Sharif's deportation does not affect her own plans to return soon to Pakistan.
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