KARACHI, Pakistan -- Pakistan's deposed premier was returned to custody today after an anti-terrorist court delayed formally charging him with kidnapping and hijacking, prosecutors said.
Nawaz Sharif, who left the courthouse in an armored personnel carrier surrounded by paramilitary rangers, was ordered held by police until the charges are filed on Nov. 26. Both charges carry the death penalty or life in prison.Sharif was overthrown Oct. 12 in a bloodless army coup. Since then, he had been held in army custody at an undisclosed location. Today's court hearing was his first public appearance since his ouster.
Pakistani authorities began legal steps against Sharif last week, filing a police complaint accusing him and seven others of treason and hijacking. On Wednesday, the army handed Sharif over to police.
Reporters were not allowed inside the courtroom today. But afterward, one of Sharif's lawyers said the former premier told the court he knew nothing of the charges against him until earlier today.
Lawyer Iqbal Raad recalled Sharif saying that when he asked the police why he was being detained, they would not say anything.
Sharif said that he was being held in a cold, dark cell and that his physical condition was "not good," according to Raad. It was unclear, however, what physical problem Sharif might be suffering from.
Security around the anti-terrorist court in Karachi was tight today. Sharif arrived in an armored personnel carrier. He looked tired, eyewitnesses said.
Public prosecutor Feroz Mahmood Bhatti did not give any explanation for the delay in charging Sharif. However, Pakistan's legal system allows for at least two delays of up to seven days each before formal charges are brought.
The charges stem from an incident the day of the coup in which a passenger aircraft returning Army Chief Gen. Pervez Musharraf to Pakistan was denied permission to land in Karachi. The plane was eventually allowed to land -- with just seven minutes' of fuel to spare -- after army soldiers took over the Karachi Airport control tower, removed two fire engines blocking the runway and switched on the runway lights.
At the time, the army accused Sharif of trying to kill the army chief and all 200 passengers and crew members on board the aircraft. Among the passengers were 40 students of U.S.-run international schools, attended by children of U.S. diplomats.
According to a court statement published in the English-language daily newspaper The News, the pilot of the aircraft, Capt. Sarwat Hussain, was denied permission to land.
Because fuel was dangerously low, Hussain said he diverted the aircraft to Nawabshah, several hundred miles north of Karachi. But halfway there, he received a message that he could land in Karachi. He returned and "when the plane descended there was only seven minutes of fuel left," the newspaper quoted his statement as saying.
The air traffic control tower originally told the pilot to divert the aircraft to India, but Musharraf said "over my dead body," according to an earlier interview he gave to the state-run news agency.
Also among the seven charged in the case are a former adviser to Sharif, a former airline official and a former police inspector. Sharif also faces charges of corruption and defaulting on bank loans.