Nawaz Sharif, the leader of the Pakistan Muslim League, was the country's prime minister for nine years before Gen. Pervez Musharraf ousted him in a bloodless coup in 1999.
General Musharraf denounced Mr. Sharif as corrupt and said that Mr. Sharif had attempted to block a plane carrying him and 198 civilian passengers from landing. In 2000, the former prime minister went on trial, charged with hijacking and attempted murder. During the trial, Mr. Sharif testified that the military removed him because of unhappiness over his handling of tensions with India over Kashmir. Mr. Sharif was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, but was exiled to Saudi Arabia.
Since then, he has remained politically active: He sought unsuccessfully to get permission to return to the country in 2002 to participate in parliamentary elections. In 2007, his party worked to capitalize on the growing dissatisfaction with General Musharraf and anger over his attempt to oust the chief justice of the Supreme Court, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry; Mr. Sharif announced that he planned to run for president against the general. Mr. Chaudhry was ousted in March 2007 on charges of misconduct.
In August, after Justice Chaudhry regained his post, the court ruled that Mr. Sharif and his brother could return to the country, a significant blow to General Musharraf's political fortunes. But when Mr. Sharif arrived in Islamabad on Sept. 10, 2007, he was promptly deported.
The landscape shifted again, however, when Mr. Musharraf declared emergency rule in November, dismissed Justice Chaudhry and placed him under house arrest. Saudi leaders complained to the Pakistani president that since one opposition leader, Benazir Bhutto, had been allowed to return, Mr. Sharif, who is less secular, should be let back in, too. Mr. Sharif returned on Nov. 25, to the cheers of massive crowds.
Mr. Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League joined the coalition government led by Benazir Bhutto's widower, Asif Ali Zardari, of the Pakistan People’s Party. The fragile coalition came to an end when the Muslim League left in the wake of an unresolved dispute over the reinstatement of dismissed judges.
Mr. Sharif argued that Mr. Chaudhry had proved his independence. Many observers believed that Mr. Sharif hoped the deposed chief justice, who had ruled in his favor before, would do so again if reinstated. They saw Mr. Zardari's opposition to Mr. Chaudhry as a prelude to isolating his rival.
On Feb. 25, 2009, Pakistan's Supreme Court barred Mr. Sharif from elected office in a decision that was expected to plunge Pakistan into deeper political turmoil. The court made its ruling on the grounds that Mr. Sharif had been convicted of a crime. But Mr. Sharif’s lawyer immediately denounced the decision, asserting it was a political decision ordered by President Asif Ali Zardari.
The court also disqualified Mr. Sharif’s brother, Shahbaz Sharif, from continuing in office as the chief minister of the Punjab, the most important province in Pakistan, and the only one not controlled by Mr. Zardari.
Mr. Sharif pledged to join protesting lawyers in a long march from Lahore to Islamabad in March, and to take part in a planned sit-in in the capital, as part of a campaign to restore Justice Chaudhry. In a stunning concession to Mr. Sharif, the government agreed on March 16 to reinstate Justice Chaudhry. Mr. Sharif's protest tapped a deep well of dissatisfaction with the government of Mr. Zardari, who seems increasingly unable to rally Pakistanis behind the fight against the insurgents.
The new breadth of Mr. Sharif's support will make him either a drag or a spur to greater Pakistani cooperation, and it positions Mr. Sharif as a potential prime minister, if the already shaky public support for the Zardari government completely erodes.
As the Obama administration completes its review of strategy toward Pakistan, it must consider whether Mr. Sharif can be a reliable partner or whether he will use his popular support to blunt the military's already fitful campaign against the insurgency of the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
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