Ex-Pakistan PM tries to outwit Musharraf with multiple flights

[struggle4progress]

Source: The Guardian

Declan Walsh in Karachi
Friday September 7, 2007

Pakistan's former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has booked himself on five different flights to the country next week to counter government efforts to thwart his return.

The airliner intrigue is one of several ruses by Mr Sharif to keep Pakistan's intelligence agencies guessing. He has vowed to land in Islamabad on Monday, a move that will challenge the leadership of President Pervez Musharraf.

Government officials have threatened to arrest Mr Sharif on his return. He could also be deported, as his brother Shahbaz was when he tried to fly to Lahore in 2004. This time Mr Sharif is unlikely to take the national airline, Pakistan International Airlines, or charter his own plane. Instead, aides say, he will take a scheduled flight.

Mr Sharif's aides say he will be accompanied by 100 people, including 60 journalists, who have been told little other than to be ready to leave Sunday night ...

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/pakistan/Story/0,,2164193,00.html

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A day of test for democracy: PML (N)

Nirupama Subramanian

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League (N) declared on Thursday that September 10, the day party leader Nawaz Sharif is scheduled to return home from London, would be the day of a referendum for democracy and against military rule.

“We appeal to the entire nation to vote against dictatorship by turning out to welcome Nawaz Sharif, and resolve never to accept military rule again,” said Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, the party stalwart who was recently released from jail on the Supreme Court’s orders.

Addressing a press conference, Mr. Hashmi appealed to all sections of civil society to join hands with the PNL (N) in the welcome for the former Prime Minister. He also appealed to the Pakistan People’s Party to participate in the welcome and said if the PPP leader Benazir Bhutto were to return, the PML (N) would be there to greet her on arrival.

Ms. Bhutto, who held talks with government emissaries earlier this week, is said to nearing agreement with President Pervez Musharraf on a deal for power-sharing, but the return of Mr. Sharif poses a threat to the alliance in the making ...

http://www.hindu.com/2007/09/07/stories/2007090755281700.htm

[tom_paine]

1. Musharraf, being a Loyal Bushie, will likely try to murder Sharif

but like the Royal Bushies, he will have his people do it so that it doesn;t look like what it is...assassination.

Loyal Bushies are good at that, and because of that, Sharif is smart as hell to travel publicly and with a hundred people.

I still don't think a Loyal Bushie would hesitate in bringing down a whole plane, if they thought it was necessary to kill a high-priority target that could seriously damage their tyrannical ambitions, like Pat Tillman.

[acmavm]

2. They can have this guy do it...

Luis Posada Carriles




Luis Clemente Faustino Posada Carriles (born February 15, 1928) is a Cuban-born Venezuelan anti-Castro terrorist.

A former CIA operative, Posada has been accused of involvement in various terrorist attacks and plots in the Western hemisphere, including involvement in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed seventy-three people<1><2><3> and has admitted to his involvement in other terrorist plots including a string of bombings in 1997 targeting fashionable Cuban hotels and nightspots.<4><5><6> In addition, he was jailed under accusations related to an assassination attempt on Fidel Castro in Panama in 2000, although he was later pardoned by Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso in the final days of her term.<7><8>

Posada, nicknamed Bambi,<9> is regarded as a hero by some Cuban exiles hostile to the government in Havana. According to Pepe Hernandez, president of the Cuban American National Foundation, "He's been fighting one of the worst tyrannies this continent has experienced", Posada, who has denied involvement in the Cubana 455 bombing, insisted his "only objective was to fight for Cuba's freedom".<10>

In 2005, Posada was held by U.S. authorities in Texas on the charge of illegal presence on national territory before the charges were dismissed on May 8, 2007. His release on bail on April 19, 2007 had elicited angry reactions from the Cuban and Venezuelan governments.<11> The U.S. Justice Department had urged the court to keep him in jail because he was "an admitted mastermind of terrorist plots and attacks", a flight risk and a danger to the community.<6>

On September 28, 2005 a U.S. immigration judge ruled that Posada cannot be deported because he faced the threat of torture in Venezuela.<12>


-MORE-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Posada_Carriles

[Eugene]

3. Order for Sharif brother arrest

Source: BBC News

Last Updated: Friday, 7 September 2007, 08:51 GMT 09:51 UK

Order for Sharif brother arrest

A court in Pakistan has ordered the arrest of former
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's brother, Shahbaz, ahead
of the two men's expected return next week.

The two politicians, who were exiled following a 1999
coup which ousted Nawaz Sharif, are due home on
Monday.

Shahbaz Sharif denies ordering the extra-judicial
killings of five people when he was in power in the
1990s.

The return of Nawaz Sharif poses the most serious
threat yet to Gen Pervez Musharraf who has ruled
since 1999.

-snip-

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6982961.stm