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Thousands of people took to the streets of Lahore to welcome former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif home from exile after eight years. The scene was festive with fireworks blasting off as Sharif's motorcade drove through the city. It took him hours to get to the mosque to pay his respects as he kept stopping to greet supporters. Sharif vowed to help end "dictatorship" in the country. SOUNDBITE: Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, saying (Urdu): "I will never strike any deal with a dictator. However, my deal will be with you. When the Supreme Court is imprisoned, when Musharraf is simultaneously president and chief of army staff, when there is martial law in Pakistan, when there is emergency in Pakistan and the newly appointed judges of the Supreme Court are not loyal to the country and you." Sharif said he would file his nomination papers to run in the scheduled January 8 elections. But technicalities over the elections are in question under President Musharraf's emergency rule. This was Sharif's second attempt at returning from exile after a first in September ended failed. But the political atmosphere has changed radically since then with Musharraf's imposition of an emergency on November 3. Musharraf now has to contend with two rivals he has spent much of the last eight years trying to marginalise. Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto Bhutto welcomed Sharif's return as she filed her nomination papers in Sindh province. Unpopular and politically isolated, Musharraf now has to deal with two opponents, the Western world keeping a close eye and mounting anger from Pakistani citizens. Puja Bharwani, Reuters.