Pakistan's former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is heading home at the end of seven years in exile. Mr Sharif, who was ousted by President Pervez Musharraf in a bloodless coup in 1999, is expected to arrive in the capital Islamabad on Monday morning. Large numbers of police have set up barricades on the road to the airport.Boarding his plane in London, Mr Sharif said that if he was arrested upon arrival, that would be "a small price to pay for the country's freedom".
Hours earlier, his party said more than 2,000 supporters had been arrested by the Pakistan authorities. A spokesman for the Muslim League party (PML-N) said the activists had been arrested over the past four days in Punjab province, Mr Sharif's powerbase.
Mr Sharif's aides changed the flight at the last moment in an apparent effort to outwit the Pakistani authorities.
| Because radios and telephones don't work, ev'ryone knows that. Insh'allan. |