The government should not obstruct their return, the judge said. Both brothers are in London.

Sharif and Benazir Bhutto, another ex-prime minister who is out of the country and has vowed to return, want to front a growing campaign for an end to eight years of military rule during which Musharraf has struggled to contain extremism.

Government officials said they would respect the ruling, but warned Sharif, a sharp critic of Musharraf, that he could face legal action if he returns. In comments carried by the state news agency, Associated Press of Pakistan, an unidentified government spokesman was quoted as saying: “We will prove to the world that we abide by the law and constitution and believe in tolerance and fairness.”

Officials conceded in court that a written pledge not to return to Pakistan for 10 years, which Sharif signed in 2000 in return for his release from prison, could not prevent him from coming back.

But they also said that the “concessions” granted to Sharif would be nullified. “Let them come and the law will take its own course,” Attorney General Malik Mohammed Qayyum said.

In a sign of government disarray, Qayyum was also forced to deny a suggestion from another government lawyer that emergency powers dating back to 1998 were still in force, a statement that sent the Karachi Stock Exchange tumbling.

As soon as the judgment was pronounced, some 200 supporters of Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League party cheered and danced in celebration outside the court. One activist slaughtered six goats as a celebratory act in front of the white marble court complex, leaving the road smeared in blood.

At a news conference in London, Sharif described the ruling as a victory for democracy and a defeat for dictatorship. “It is the beginning of the end of Musharraf,” he said and hoped he would return to Pakistan “fairly soon.”

Asked about corruption charges he faces in Pakistan, he said Musharraf might be “fabricating” cases against him. “I will face anything that he does against me. I’m not scared of that,” he said.

He had harsh words for Musharraf. “I don’t believe in any power-sharing with Musharraf. He is a dictator. We are democrats,” Sharif said, and forecast that the emboldened courts would block Musharraf’s plan to continue as president.

A spokeswoman for Benazir’s Pakistan People’s Party also welcomed the court ruling.

Musharraf had repeatedly vowed earlier to prevent the exiled former leader from returning. But with the United States urging stronger action against Taleban and Al-Qaeda militants in Pakistan, he has begun talking of the need for political reconciliation and for moderates to unite against extremism.

In a question-and-answer session recorded before the verdict and shown later on state TV, Musharraf was asked whether he would let Sharif and Benazir return. “There is a requirement for forgiving, forgetting the past, and political reconciliation is the need of the hour. This is what I am striving for,” he said, without elaborating.

Musharraf and Benazir, who left Pakistan in 1999 to avoid arrest on corruption charges, are currently engaged in talks about a power-sharing deal that could see him stay on as president but give up his post as army chief.

On TV, Musharraf said only that he was “aware of domestic and international concern on the issue of my uniform. But I want to say that I will follow the constitution and law.”

The timing of a return by Sharif could hardly be more awkward for Musharraf, who is expected to seek re-election from the national and provincial assemblies between mid-September and mid-October and hold parliamentary elections within months.

Al Jazeera