ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that exiled former prime minister Nawaz Sharif can return home after seven years in exile, the chief of the court said.
Sharif, a two-time prime minister, has vowed to oppose a bid by President Pervez Musharraf for another term in office. Sharif, 57, was overthrown by army chief Musharraf in a 1999 coup.
"They have an inalienable right to come back and stay in the country," Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry told the court, referring to Sharif and his brother, Shahbaz Sharif, who is also a politician and was exiled with his brother in 2000.
The court called on the government not to obstruct their return in any way, Chaudhry said. Both brothers are in London.
The timing of a return by Sharif could hardly be more awkward for Musharraf, who is expected to seek re-election from the national and provincial assemblies between mid-September and mid-October and hold parliamentary elections within months.
After the 1999 coup, Musharraf co-opted the rump of Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (PML) to form his own political base, and analysts say that could splinter if Sharif were to return.
A senior PML member said Nawaz Sharif would meet party colleagues in London and decide when he would return to Pakistan, where he still faces corruption charges.
"It's a landmark decision that will have a far-reaching impact on politics in Pakistan," PML chairman Raja Zafar-ul-Haq told Reuters.
Hundreds of jubilant Sharif supporters chanted "go Musharraf, go!" outside the Supreme Court.
Sharif and Benazir Bhutto, another former prime minister in exile, are both hoping to come home and take part in the general elections that Musharraf has promised will be free and fair.
