“I am amazed by this fabricated case,” Sharif said as he was shoved through the crowd in the Islamabad airport. “I’m amazed, I’m shocked.”

Hours before his arrival, the police sealed off the airport to prevent Sharif’s supporters from greeting him. Clashes were reported on the roads leading to the airport, in other parts of the capital and in other cities across Punjab Province, with the police firing tear gas canisters and using baton charges to disperse protesters.

After he had been detained, many of the police officers manning the roadblocks around the airport asked for news of Sharif and some expressed unhappiness that he had been arrested.

“Not happy,” said one policeman, named Rashid. “It was his natural desire to live in Pakistan.”

“It’s not good,” said another policeman, named Qazalabash. “He came back to his home country after seven years. It’s not good they arrested him.”

After it touched down today, Sharif’s plane taxied to a stop away from the terminal and then sat on the runway for about 90 minutes. About 100 police officers, some with weapons, surrounded the aircraft.

A police officer boarded the aircraft and asked Sharif, who was surrounded by about 15 aides and 30 journalists, to disembark, but he refused, asking first for a guarantee that he would not be arrested or deported. He also asked for a bus to accommodate the entire group.

A member of Britain’s House of Lords, Lord Nazir Ahmed, was present on the plane, and he negotiated with the police to allow Sharif’s safe transportation into the terminal.

... contd.