ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, May 11 (UPI) -- An exiled Pakistani leader arrived in Saudi Arabia late Tuesday after being deported from his home nation.
Shahbaz Sharif had flown to Pakistan earlier Tuesday in a challenge to President Pervez Musharraf, who overthrew Sharif's brother Nawaz in a bloodless 1999 coup.
Sharif was deported one hour after arriving at the airport in his hometown of Lahore from more than three years in exile. He was not allowed to leave the airport.
As soon as Sharif's Gulf Air flight from Abu Dhabi landed, police officials shifted him to another plane bound for the Saudi Arabian port city of Jeddah.
Earlier, police had arrested hundreds of members of Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (N) party.
Sharif had claimed he could not take another long flight, but a team of doctors declared him fit for onward travel to Saudi Arabia
Sharif started his trip home from London. Last year, he was treated in New York for cancer.
In Pakistan, his return was seen as the biggest opposition challenge to Musharraf in four years in power.
In 2000, Pakistan signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia to keep the Sharif brothers for 10 years.
