Pakistan is a country run under the law of rulers, not one of which is subject to rule of law. If evidence was needed of this reality, it was provided on September 10, with the deportation of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

The Musharraf regime claims that Sharif entered into an agreement seven years ago to stay out of the country and its politics for ten years. The agreement involved a foreign businessman, a foreign prince and the secret services of Pakistan and a foreign country. It is not even a written contract. Only in a state controlled by lawless coup-makers can an agreement of this nature trump the constitutional judgement of the country’s highest court. Sharif’s banishment was not unexpected, though on legal and moral grounds there is no justification for the government’s uncivil attitude towards the former prime minister.

That said, Sharif made an error in political judgement by failing to correctly estimate his strengths as well as his weaknesses. He was swayed by Pakistan’s many armchair revolutionaries into believing that his immediate return to the country would make him more popular than Benazir Bhutto. Sharif rejected Bhutto’s suggestion of following a two-track strategy of negotiating with the regime while at the same time opposing it. At a time when General Musharraf is almost universally hated as the symbol of authoritarianism in Pakistan, defiance of him could be the key to enhanced popularity.

But the armchair revolutionaries advocating defiance stayed at home on the day of Sharif’s arrival, leaving others to man the barricades. The regime shamelessly arrested hundreds of people and used a security blanket to block significant demonstrations of support for Sharif.

... contd.