Pakistan deports ex-PM on return
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been deported within hours of returning from exile.
After arriving at Islamabad airport he was arrested on charges of money laundering and put on a plane which later landed in Saudi Arabia.
Mr Sharif says he wants to challenge President Pervez Musharraf, who ousted him in a 1999 coup, ahead of elections.
Mr Sharif arrived in Pakistan weeks after the country's Supreme Court affirmed his right to return.
On board the plane which flew him to Pakistan from London, Mr Sharif told the BBC he wanted to help restore the rule of law.
"It's democracy versus dictatorship," he said.
Once the plane arrived in Islamabad, paramilitary troops surrounded it and there was a stand-off on board as Mr Sharif refused to hand over his passport to immigration officials for nearly two hours.
Eventually he agreed to leave the plane and was escorted to the airport's VIP lounge.
But shortly afterwards, he was separated from his entourage, returned to the tarmac and put on board a helicopter. Later, he was transferred to a plane bound for Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.
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