Saudi officials said he would be making no public statements.

But lawyers travelling with Sharif said the arrest and what they called his deportation were unlawful and were setting the government up for a clash with the country’s Supreme Court. “The whole episode was very unlawful and was a clear contempt of court,” said Amjad Malik, a British lawyer who had accompanied Sharif on his return to Pakistan. “It is a violation of the law of Pakistan. It is a criminal offence to kidnap someone and take them out of the country.”

The popularity of the court’s chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, exploded earlier this year when Musharraf suspended him for four months, and his subsequent reinstatement signalled a new independence on the part of the court from Musharraf.

The move by the government today could sideline a potentially powerful political opponent of Musharraf or embolden the growing opposition to his rule.

Sharif was toppled in a bloodless coup by Musharraf in 1999. He was hoping to end his seven years in exile and begin his challenge to the current government, in elections due this fall, when he boarded a Pakistan International Airlines flight from London on Sunday.

He was coming home to a country gripped by uncertainty, anticipation and anxiety about the government’s response to his return.

A court official in Pakistan representing the National Accountability Bureau, retired Lt. Col. Azhar Mahmud Qazi, said that Sharif was arrested after a police officer had served a warrant charging him with money laundering. The amount involved, the official said, was about $31.5 million.

... contd.