The Pakistan government today backtracked saying it did not deport Nawaz Sharif, a claimcontested by supporters of the deposed Prime Minister who moved the Supreme Court seeking his recall from Jeddah.

A day after Sharif was bundled out of the country amid high drama, a spokesman for Pervez Musharraf said the President played no role in his exile to Saudi Arabia.

Getting into damage control mode, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz claimed the government did not force Sharif to return to Saudi Arabia, and it was his own choice. “We did not force him to return. I have been told that he was given two options — either to go to prison or proceed to Saudi Arabia,” Aziz said in an interview to CNBC television.

Sharif’s nephew Hamza and his party members moved the Supreme Court amid assertions by Chief Justice Iftikhar M Chaudhry that “justice will be done even if the heavens fall.”

Indirectly referring to his suspension in March and later his restoration by the court after a lawyers’ movement, he said at a function yesterday that the year can be described as a “defining moment.”

Today, the Chief Justice adjourned all cases after lawyers entered his room and announced that they were boycotting courts to protest against Sharif’s deportation. Opposition parties observed a ‘Black Day’ across Pakistan.

The Election Commission today said it would shortly announce the schedule for the Presidential polls. Chief Election Commissioner Qazi Muhammad Farooq, a retired Supreme Court judge, said the election to the office of the President should be held in accordance with the Constitution and all necessary arrangements were being made.

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