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Pakistan's election commission rules the country's former prime minister out of January's parliamentary elections. MOREINFO: The election commission says Nawaz Sharif cannot stand in next month's parliamentary elections because he has criminal convictions which he says were politically motivated in the wake of his removal from power in a coup in 1999. SCRIPT: The disqualification of Nawaz Sharif from Pakistan's parliamentary elections next month has triggered an angry backlash from his supporters who vented their rage at Islamabad Airport. The country's election commission says the former Prime Minister can't stand because he has criminal convictions. Sharif says he won't be deterred. SOUNDBITE: Nawaz Sharif, former Pakistan Prime Minister, saying (English): "I will take this case now to the All Parties Democratic Movement with the recommendation that we should now be fighting these elections. We should now be fighting dictatorship with more vigour and more determination." Sharif's disqualification is being blamed by his supporters on pressure from beleaguered President Pervez Musharraf, on Monday hosting a visit by his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul. Sharif insists his criminal convictions were politically motivated after Musharraf forced him from power in 1999. He was convicted of hijacking for trying to turn away a plane carrying Musharraf after Sharif sacked him as army chief. He was sent into exile in Saudi Arabia after another conviction on corruption charges. He only came back to Pakistan last month. Sharif's lawyer is disputing his disqualification despite a constitutional ban on people with convictions running for parliament. SOUNDBITE: Imtiaz Kaifi, lawyer for former prime minister Nawaz Sharif saying (Urdu): "The rejection of Nawaz Sharif's nomination papers proves that some unidentified hands are dealing with these affairs from behind the scenes because under the law his nomination papers can't be rejected." Sharif and his allies are urging an opposition boycott of next month's parliamentary elections. He's facing an uphill struggle to persuade rival opposition leader Benazir Bhutto who fears such a move would simply leave the field wide open for Musharraf's allies who are expected to fare badly. Paul Chapman, Reuters