Pakistani exile’s brother arrested

A court ordered the arrest of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s brother, just days before the siblings are to return to Pakistan to challenge President Pervez Musharraf, a lawyer said.

Sharif was toppled by Musharraf in a 1999 coup, and convicted on charges of hijacking and terrorism and sentenced to life imprisonment before being released into exile in Saudi Arabia.

He says he plans to fly home Monday from London to run for parliament and counter Musharraf’s reelection bid, despite veiled threats from senior officials to put him back in jail.

In another sign that the government is planning a bumpy landing for the exiles, officials said Friday that police had detained hundreds of Sharif supporters.

Sharif’s party denounced the latest moves and said they would backfire on Musharraf.

An anti-terrorism court in the eastern city of Lahore on Friday ordered the arrest of Sharif’s brother Shahbaz in a homicide case, said Aftab Ahmed Bajwa, a lawyer for the plaintiff.

He is charged with ordering police to kill five men who were gunned down in Lahore in 1998. At the time of the killings, Shahbaz Sharif was the chief minister, or top executive, of Punjab province, and his brother was Pakistan’s prime minister.

Thousands of Sharif supporters are planning to converge on Islamabad to welcome him, but the authorities are expected to try to block them.

The Sharifs plan to travel to Lahore, the capital of Punjab and their power base, by road.

Party spokesman Ahsan Iqbal said more than 1,300 supporters had been arrested in Punjab in the last three days. Lahore police put the number at about 350.

Musharraf is expected to seek reelection by lawmakers by mid-October.