The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family members, including brother Shahbaz Sharif, could return to Pakistan whenever they want without any obstacle.

A five-judge Bench presided over by Chief Justice Iftikhar Moahammad Chaudhry announced the verdict on petitions filed by Sharif seeking its intervention to stop the government from obstructing his return.

The court further ruled that nobody, including the Sharifs, could be extradited from the country under the Constitution. The court rejected the government plea that under an agreement signed by the Sharifs and brokered by a brotherly country, they agreed to remain outside in exile for 10 years pledging neither to participate in politics nor do any business. The court said the government failed to produce any original document of the contract. The copies submitted to the court bore signatures of some family members that the Sharifs dubbed as fraudulent.

The court said the copies of the document provided by the government did not bear any other signature although a contract had to be between the two parties.

The document can at best be treated as an undertaking but nobody can contract himself out of what the Constitution termed as fundamental right even if there is any agreement it has no legal value.

London: Nawaz Sharif said on Thursday he intended to return to Pakistan “as soon as possible” and contest elections to try to oust President Pervez Musharraf from office. “It is the beginning of the end of Musharraf,” Sharif told a news conference in London. — Reuters