By IANS
Islamabad : Pakistan’s Supreme Court Thursday ruled that exiled former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz Sharif – former chief minister of Punjab – can return home and participate in politics, Geo TV reported.
The court, hearing constitutional petitions from the Sharif brothers, ruled that as Pakistanis they could return to the country and take part in national politics.
In a brief judgement, the court said that under Article 3 of the constitution no citizen of the country could be stopped from returning home.
Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry said in his judgement: “The Sharifs can return to Pakistan unhindered. They have an inalienable right to return and remain in the country as citizens of Pakistan.”
Nawaz Sharif, who served as prime minister from 1990 to 1993 and again from 1997 to 1999, left the country after he was ousted by President Pervez Musharraf in a military coup in 1999.
After the coup, he was sentenced to a life term on charges of tax evasion and treason. He was allowed to go to Saudi Arabia in exile in 2000.
He is currently living in London where he had convened a meeting of opposition parties.
His campaign to return and contest the forthcoming elections has been seen by analysts as a challenge to Musharraf, who is facing growing political pressures, according to BBC.
Senior lawyer Fakhruddin G. Ibrahim appeared before the court on behalf of the Sharif brothers, while Attorney General Malik Qayyum, Ahmed Raza Kasuri and Ibrahim Satti were counsels of the government.
As the verdict was announced, several hundred supporters of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), one of Pakistan’s major opposition parties, broke into frenzied song and dance to celebrate outside the supreme court complex and shouted slogans against Musharraf.