Pakistan’s Supreme Court ruled today that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who was thrust into exile in 2000 after a military coup, could return to the country, in what could be a direct political challenge to President Pervez Musharraf.

In London, Sharif said he intended to return to Pakistan as soon as possible. “It is the beginning of the end of Musharraf,” he said, according to Reuters.

Sharif leads one of the strongest political movements against General Musharraf, and he wants to run against him for president in elections later this year. The ruling could lend momentum to the return to the country of Benazir Bhutto, Sharif’s predecessor as prime minister, who has also been living in exile and is another potential challenger to the president.

As a rival to both Musharraf and Bhutto, Sharif’s return could challenge Washington’s strategy of backing the president as the linchpin of its fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban in the region, and some American officials’ preference to see the General and Bhutto in a power-sharing agreement in the country.

Musharraf seized control from Sharif in a bloodless coup in 1999. Sharif was imprisoned on corruption and other charges and then entered an understanding with the government to go abroad for 10 years in return for having the charges against him dropped.

He and his brother, Shahbaz Sharif, who was also forced into exile in 2000, filed a petition to the Supreme Court earlier this month to return to Pakistan, arguing that they were unconstitutionally forced from the country.

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