AFP

Lahore, Nov 26 (mb) : Nawaz Sharif, the Pakistani prime minister ousted in a coup eight years ago, returned from exile on Sunday to a nation under emergency rule and a raucous welcome from supporters.   

A special plane lent by Saudi King Abdullah touched down at Lahore airport carrying Sharif, family members and some of his closest aides at 6:25 pm (1325 GMT), an AFP reporter witnessed.   

Television footage showed Sharif, accompanied by his brother Shabaz, beaming and waving to a chanting crowd in the arrivals lounge.   

Thousands of other supporters, chanting 'Long live Sharif!' and waving flags and banners, massed outside the airport and along the road into the heart of this eastern city to give him a festive welcome home.   

"Nawaz Sharif's plane has landed," Mohammad Iftikhar, a senior official at Lahore's Allama Iqbal International Airport, told.   

State television also announced the arrival of the premier whom President Pervez Musharraf, his then army chief, ousted in a coup in 1999 and exiled to Saudi Arabia a year later.   

It is Sharif's second return -- his first, on September 10 this year, ended just four hours later when he was unceremoniously deported back to Saudi Arabia.   

"Lahore will accord a rousing welcome to Nawaz Sharif, mark my words," his nephew Hamza Shabaz told Dawn television outside the airport earlier.   

Sharif flew home this time with the government's acquiescence, upping the pressure on military ruler Musharraf who has been condemned around the world for refusing to lift the state of emergency he imposed three weeks ago.