Islamabad: In an order that may add to the woes of President Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif must be allowed to return to the country.
"The court's order on Nawaz Sharif's return is holding the field and requires to be implemented in true letter and spirit," a seven-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikar Mohammed Chowdhury, said.
The court had passed an order earlier this year, ruling that Nawaz Sharif was well within his right to return to the country. Sharif made an attempt to return home on September 10, but was deported to Saudi Arabia by the military regime.
The court took serious objection to reports that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had passed verbal orders to the Foreign Ministry to keep an aircraft ready to fly Sharif out of Pakistan on September 10.
"Steps were being taken to violate the orders of this court by the Prime Minister (Aziz)," the court observed. Sharif's supporters cheered the court order and shouted slogans against Gen Musharraf outside the Supreme Court after the court order.
Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, has dismissed reports that the US is pressuring it to allow Sharif to return to Pakistan ahead of the upcoming general elections even as a Pakistani minister said the PML-N leader could not come back for another three years.
"There was never any pressure from the US on the government of Saudi Arabia regarding the matter of the ex-PM of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif," a press release issued by the Saudi embassy said.
The embassy described as baseless and false the reports in a section of the media about pressure on the Saudi government for letting Sharif return to Pakistan.
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