Sharif to return to Pakistan on Sunday

By Simon Cameron-Moore

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister deposed by President Pervez Musharraf in a coup eight years ago, will return to Pakistan from Saudi Arabia on Sunday, his brother Shahbaz Sharif told a Pakistani news channel.

General Musharraf, under intense criticism at home and abroad for imposing emergency rule three weeks ago, agreed to Sharif's return in discussions with Saudi King Abdullah in Riyadh this week, according to a leader of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML).

Sharif met King Abdullah in Riyadh for a "farewell meeting" on Friday.

"We will fly on Sunday on Saudi Airlines directly from Medina to Lahore," Shahbaz, speaking from London, told the private television channel ARYOne World.

Sharif will be joined by his wife Kulsoom and Shahbaz in Saudi and they will perform a pilgrimage to Mecca before taking the flight to Lahore, the capital of Punjab province and power base of the Sharif family.

Both brothers went into exile a year after the 1999 coup.

By returning on Sunday they will get back in time to file election nominations in order to contest a parliamentary poll on January 8.

Politically isolated, Musharraf allowed another former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, to return to Pakistan last month after years abroad, by granting her protection against prosecution in old corruption cases she says were politically motivated.