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Nawaz Sharif returns from exile to a country under emergency rule, while another former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, files nomination papers for parliamentary elections. Pakistan police detained thousands of supporters of Nawaz Sharif to stop them greeting the former prime minister on his return from exile in Saudi Arabia on Sunday (November 25), according to party loyalists. President Pervez Musharraf imposed emergency rule on November 3 to safeguard his own presidency, but under pressure from Saudi King Abdullah reluctantly acquiesced to the return of Sharif, the leader he deposed in a bloodless coup eight years ago. Sharif's aides say there is no deal between the two old foes in the run up to a parliamentary election due on January 8. Understanding or not, police detained activists from Sharif's party, known as the Nawaz League, before they could come out to welcome him, party officials and police said. Western governments fear that stifling democracy could benefit Islamist militants threatening nuclear-armed Pakistan. In contrast to the last time Sharif tried to return in September, when he was swiftly dispatched back into exile in Saudi Arabia, Musharraf has now given his reluctant approval, according to a senior aide to the president. Sharif's return, just in time to file nomination papers for the election, means the increasingly unpopular Musharraf will have to contend with two ex-premiers he has spent much of the last eight years trying to marginalize. Gene...