Sharif

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- President Pervez Musharraf promised yesterday to lift his emergency decree by Dec. 16, but opponents expressed skepticism that he would fully roll back the repressive measures he imposed nearly a month ago. The pledge came hours into Musharraf's tenure as a strictly civilian leader, which he touted as proof of his commitment to democracy. Taking the oath of office for a new five-year presidential term in the morning, the former general defended his decision to declare emergency rule and chided the West for "unrealistic" expectations about the nature of democracy in Pakistan.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- The exiled leader of Pakistan's second-largest opposition political party was scheduled to fly home today, party officials said, a move that could upset the country's fragile balance before parliamentary elections. Also, two suicide bombers killed at least 18 people yesterday morning in almost simultaneous attacks on Pakistani security forces, including workers from the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency, or ISI. Government officials said they would allow the return of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, a bitter rival of President Pervez Musharraf, the army chief who deposed Sharif in a bloodless military coup in 1999.

JUST three weeks ago, the State Department warned Pakistan's army not to depose Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Washington called this support for the democratic process, not the man.Now, the world community must respond to a repudiation of that warning after yesterday's apparent overthrow of Mr. Sharif's government in a military coup.Mr. Sharif was denounced by many in Pakistan for visiting Washington in July and promising President Clinton to withdraw the Pakistan-backed insurgents fighting the Indian army in Kashmir.

ULYSEES Bagwell, book editor?The query will mean nothing to most of you, of course. But it will no doubt pique the interest of those who graduated from Baltimore City College's class of 1969, which the faculty probably would have voted the school's looniest if such a tally had been taken.Seventh District Congressman Elijah Cummings is one of the shining stars of that class, as is state delegate Tony Fulton. Bagwell now goes by the name of Amin Sharif, the result of a conversion to Islam. None of us in City's class of '69 figured Sharif would go into politics.

WAGAH, Pakistan -- A golden bus crossed from India to Pakistan yesterday bearing an old rival and the hopes of a subcontinent tired of war.Prime Minster Atal Bihari Vajpayee rode in from India to meet his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, spurring talk that a trans-border bus route might open a new era of friendliness between the historic enemies.Vajpayee and Sharif planned two days of meetings aimed at bridging the differences between the world's two newest nuclear-armed states. The Indian prime minister's foray across the border unfolded amid pageantry, turning an ordinarily hostile border post into a platform for peacemaking.

NEW DELHI, India -- Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said yesterday that India would continue airstrikes against what he described as Pakistani-backed infiltrators dug into Indian territory, and would be willing to hold talks with Pakistan about the conflict only if they were not conditional on a halt to the air raids.Vajpayee's remarks came in response to a telephone call Friday from Pakistan's prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, who offered to send Pakistan's foreign minister to New Delhi to meet with his Indian counterpart.

BENAZIR BHUTTO has twice been dismissed as prime minister of Pakistan. Her rival, Nawaz Sharif, has had that distinction only once. But as the decisive winner of yesterday's parliamentary election, she gets a chance to even the score.This was an election without shiny brights. It was an exercise in jaded disillusion. The real message of the historically low turnout, estimated at one voter for four eligible, was that Pakistanis feel betrayed by all politicians. The real loser was Pakistani democracy itself, which has been ruled either by autocratic generals or elected but discredited politicians.

India, Pakistan should make realistic gainsThe June 24 news story, ''India, Pakistan to discuss Kashmir, other disputes,'' highlights the fact that relations between the two South Asian neighbors have been strained for 50 years over Kashmir.As a significant first step, both nations have agreed to stop propaganda and provocative actions against each other. At long last, it appears, there is hope on the Indian subcontinent.Prime Ministers Inder K. Gujral of India and Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan deserve a lot of credit for taking bold steps.

Every year around this time, the Small household goes through a ritual."Monday through Wednesday, there's a lot of talk -- bragging and boasting," said Clarence Small. "Thursday, there's not much noise. But on Friday, we'll get up and say a family prayer, about five minutes' worth."Then, after sending his twin boys off to school -- Taber to City, Sharif to Forest Park -- Clarence will spend his day at work, dreading the fact that his sons will be adversaries in an afternoon football game.

This month's prize for gross political irresponsibility goes to Nawaz Sharif, former prime minster of Pakistan and now opposition leader. At a political rally in the Pakistani portion of Kashmir, Mr. Sharif asserted that Pakistan has nuclear weapons and threatened their use against India if there is another war over Kashmir. That's the equivalent of running through a forest of dry tinder carrying a torch. One stumble and there's a conflagration.Mr. Sharif is engaged in a bitter political struggle with Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who narrowly defeated him in last year's elections.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- One of the two main parties in Pakistan's ruling coalition declared yesterday that it will quit the government in a dispute over when and how to reinstate judges fired by President Pervez Musharraf during a crackdown late last year. The announcement by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-N faction, raises the prospect of a messy splintering of the alliance that soundly defeated the party of U.S.-backed Musharraf at the polls nearly three months ago. Sharif said his party, although relinquishing its Cabinet posts, would continue to support the coalition for now, and negotiations between the two main parties were expected to continue.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan's leading opposition parties, victors in elections last month, agreed yesterday to form a government and directly challenged the country's U.S.-backed president, Pervez Musharraf, by pledging to restore the senior judiciary that he had sacked. In a breakthrough, the Pakistan People's Party, led by Asif Ali Zardari, husband of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, and the Pakistan Muslim League-N, headed by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, agreed to share power in a coalition.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Less than two weeks before this country's crucial Feb. 18 elections, the man who supplanted slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto as Pakistan's most widely known politician has left the country. It's a peculiar absence in the middle of a political campaign, but one that reflects a growing belief that the coming election likely will be marked by widespread vote-rigging and fraud. Nawaz Sharif, a two-time former prime minister, went to the United Arab Emirates this week, apparently to be with his wife as she underwent surgery in Dubai.

WASHINGTON -- For months, the Bush administration's hopes for political stability in Pakistan rested on the rising influence of Benazir Bhutto. Her death yesterday shattered those hopes and threatened to paralyze U.S. efforts that hinged in part on her survival: the fight against terrorism, the safety of Pakistan's nuclear weapons and stability in the turbulent region. The Bush administration had a huge stake in Bhutto, the pro-Western former prime minister. U.S. officials were banking heavily that her party would win enough seats in next month's elections to stabilize a precarious political climate.

KARACHI, Pakistan -- Bending to political realities, former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif abandoned his threat to boycott next month's parliamentary elections, agreeing yesterday to allow his party to compete in the Jan. 8 vote aimed at restoring democratic rule. His decision means both major opposition parties, the other headed by former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, will contest next month's vote. But the move marks an embarrassing, if not unexpected, about-face for Sharif.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been barred from running in January's parliamentary elections because of a previous conviction, Pakistan's election commission announced yesterday. A spokesman for Sharif, Ahsan Iqbal, said that the barring of Sharif was part of a plan by President Pervez Musharraf and his supporters to rig the elections, and that Sharif's lawyers would contest the decision. Sharif, a leading opposition figure who was overthrown in a military coup in 1999, was allowed to return from exile last week, and filed nomination papers to represent a district of his home city of Lahore in the parliamentary elections scheduled for Jan. 8. But other candidates in the district challenged his nomination on the grounds that he was convicted in 2000 of hijacking a plane carrying Musharraf, who was then head of the army, an act that precipitated the bloodless coup.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- President Pervez Musharraf promised yesterday to lift his emergency decree by Dec. 16, but opponents expressed skepticism that he would fully roll back the repressive measures he imposed nearly a month ago. The pledge came hours into Musharraf's tenure as a strictly civilian leader, which he touted as proof of his commitment to democracy. Taking the oath of office for a new five-year presidential term in the morning, the former general defended his decision to declare emergency rule and chided the West for "unrealistic" expectations about the nature of democracy in Pakistan.

LAHORE, Pakistan -- The day after returning to Pakistan after seven years in exile, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif registered yesterday for elections, although he said his party could still boycott the Jan. 8 vote. Sharif spoke in his family's home, which had been confiscated by the government while he was away. He vowed to fight military rule and President Pervez Musharraf, the army general who deposed him in a bloodless coup in 1999. Sharif spoke out more forcefully against Musharraf than another former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, who had been negotiating a power-sharing deal with the president until he imposed emergency rule Nov. 3. Unlike Bhutto, Sharif called for the restoration of the judges fired by Musharraf because they would not sign a new oath to him. Sharif said this was the major issue on which he would not bend.

LAHORE, Pakistan -- Tens of thousands of cheering, chanting supporters showered former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif with rose petals as he triumphantly returned from exile yesterday, posing a thorny new challenge not only to the president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, but also to pro-Western opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. Sharif's comeback, just 11 weeks after he was summarily deported by Musharraf, the military leader who once overthrew him, marks a complex new phase in the political turmoil that has gripped the nuclear-armed country, a key U.S. ally, for much of the year.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- The exiled leader of Pakistan's second-largest opposition political party was scheduled to fly home today, party officials said, a move that could upset the country's fragile balance before parliamentary elections. Also, two suicide bombers killed at least 18 people yesterday morning in almost simultaneous attacks on Pakistani security forces, including workers from the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency, or ISI. Government officials said they would allow the return of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, a bitter rival of President Pervez Musharraf, the army chief who deposed Sharif in a bloodless military coup in 1999.