Sharif humiliated before deportation: Pak journalist

ISLAMABAD: The four-hour stay of former Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif on home soil was a saga of humiliation during which low-ranking police personnel repeatedly shoved and jeered him, according to a Pakistani journalist, who travelled with the PML-N leader from London.

Sharif, who had arrived very confident, was soon depressed and bewildered at the shabby treatment accorded to him and virtually broke down at one point.

Giving a detailed account of Sharif's journey from London to Islamabad, Rauf Klasra of 'The News' wrote in his paper on Tuesday that Sharif was treated with total contempt at the Islamabad airport when low-ranking police officers were sent to talk to him.

A visibly depressed and unaided Nawaz was aggressively pushed inside an old bus parked outside the VIP Rawal Lounge and shifted to the plane and sent into exile. As the bus headed towards the PIA plane, about 100 commandos also started running after the bus laughing and cracking jokes, and returned only when the plane had taken off.

Sharif, who was very confident before landing at Islamabad that he would be received by thousands of his party workers and supporters, however, suffered one of the biggest humiliations of his life when an army officer of the National Accountability Bureau told him in the presence of mediamen that he was under arrest on charges of money-laundering.

This public announcement initially gave the impression that he was not being deported to Saudi Arabia and instead would now be kept in jail in Pakistan. But this was not to be, and minutes later the commandos surrounded him, the journalist wrote.

Before he could realise what was happening, commandos wearing black uniforms captured a bewildered Sharif and made him follow their instructions, as they aggressively started pushing him towards the immigration counter, which led to a scuffle between Sharif's party workers and the commandos, Klasra wrote.

An emotional Pervez Rashid, a close aide of Sharif, could not hold back his tears when he saw the former prime minister being humiliated by these commandos. He shouted in a passionate voice 'show him respect, show him respect'. But, his emotional outburst fell on deaf ears.

A visibly disturbed Sharif told these commandos that he should not be touched at all. He shouted furiously many times at them, after they tried to drag him. "No one should dare touch me".

Nawaz and his supporters stood their ground for a while but soon their 'resistance' was broken by these rude commandos, who even misbehaved with foreign and local journalists. Many foreign journalists loudly protested over this treatment.

An emotional Sharif told mediapersons in a choked voice how he was being treated although he had come only after the Supreme Court of Pakistan had allowed him to return. But, soon loud shouts started coming from the immigration section after Nawaz was once again whisked away towards the plane.

It was then that he and his supporters realised that he was actually being sent to Saudi Arabia and NAB's announcement of his arrest was just a deception.

This infuriated Sharif even more and he once again tried to resist but he was overpowered by the commandos, who once again pushed him towards an old bus to reach the plane, the journalist wrote.

Earlier, during his seven-hour long journey from London to Islamabad, Sharif kept sleeping in his club class seat after he decided at the Heathrow airport to reach Pakistan by a PIA flight.

He was accompanied by Pervez Rasheed, Nadir Chaudhri, Lord Nazir Ahmed, Zubair Gul, Riazur Rehman, and many other friends. He was woken up by Pervez Rasheed only when the plane was about to land at Islamabad airport.

Sharif immediately left the club class and sat among the economy class passengers in the middle of the plane. His workers started chanting slogans of 'go Musharraf go'.

The PML-N leader remained in a very pensive and serious mood, having no idea what fate had in store for him.

As the plane stopped at the runway, a heavy contingent of commandos laid siege to the plane. Sharif refused to come out of the plane, having no idea about the next move of the commandos and most importantly, what the Musharraf government had planned to do with him once he came out of the plane.

Lord Nazir Ahmed, who had accompanied him from London started negotiations with a police officer, Tahir, who came to see Sharif inside the plane and saluted him in front of the cameras giving an impression that the former premier might be treated with a lot of respect.

This salute helped a lot to ease tension in the plane.

The negotiations between the police and the Sharif camp over certain modalities lasted for over one hour. The two sides discussed how Nawaz would come out and what kind of treatment he should get. At one stage, Kaleem Imam, the deputy director FIA requested Nawaz to hand him over his passport as he would bring it back after getting it stamped and fulfilling the immigration formalities, according to the scribe.

But Sharif did not accept this offer as he feared that after getting his passport stamped, he would be directly dispatched to Jeddah and the immigration record would be produced before the court to prove that he was allowed to enter Pakistan, the journalist wrote.

Then the government would deport him to Saudi Arabia as there was no clear instructions from the court whether he could not be deported once he was allowed entry into Pakistan.

Finally, Kaleem Imam and other officers yielded to Sharif's conditions so that he could come out. As he emerged from the plane, he was pleasantly surprised to see a large number of civilian staff of the airport applauding and frantically waving towards him.

This unusual sight greatly pleased Sharif, as he was not expecting that he would be greeted by the officials of the airport in such a tense environment. This scene greatly irked the officials of the security agencies as they rushed to push those employees back but they kept on waving and clapping.

Sharif along with the mediapersons was put in a bus, which took him to the Rawal Lounge, where he sat on a sofa along with his colleagues as Imam offered him water, juice, and tea.

Imam also helped a lot to make the otherwise tense environment very comfortable with his polite attitude and generous hospitability. Because of Imam's efforts, at one stage the environment was so friendly and cordial that everybody thought that all was normal and the government had decided to fully implement the Supreme Court verdict.

In a very polite and decent way, Imam, however, constantly kept on trying to convince Sharif to get his passport stamped to meet the requirements of immigration but Sharif said unless his top party leaders were allowed to receive him, he would not hand over his passport.

But as time passed, Imam was repeatedly put under pressure by the edgy and irritated officials of the secret agencies to put an end to his 'hospitality' and let them do their job.

Meanwhile, a NAB officer appeared on the scene and he started reading out a charge-sheet against Sharif and told him that he was under arrest. Lt Colonel Qazi asked the commandos to help him take Sharif into custody.

This sudden twist in the otherwise very friendly environment produced a dramatic effect on all the people present there. Panic gripped the commandos who rushed to capture Sharif after pushing journalists and his supporters aside.

Sharif resisted their attempt and told them not to touch him at all otherwise they would be held accountable.

This threat worked for a while, but soon the commandos overcame their initial hesitation to misbehave with the twice-elected prime minister of Pakistan and started dragging and pushing him towards the immigration counter. This process lasted for ten minutes, during which Sharif was manhandled by these commandos before being put on a plane to Saudi Arabia, Klasra wrote.