Deportation is not defeat. Nawaz Sharif, when he came back to Pakistan after seven years, was forced to leave within four hours of his arrival, but he positioned himself in the turbulent politics of his country in a telling and powerful manner. Mr Sharif may not, at the moment, be setting the agenda of Pakistan politics, but there are good reasons to believe that he might do so in the near future. At the most immediate level, he has out-manoeuvred his principal rival in democratic politics, Benazir Bhutto, the leader in absentia of the Pakistan People’s Party. If Ms Bhutto were now to make a deal with Pervez Musharraf, she would be seen to be supping with the devil and thus sullying her democratic credentials. She has cleverly been wrong-footed. What Mr Sharif has tried to establish by his dramatic return to his homeland is the importance of the people of Pakistan in the politics of their own country. For too long, politics in Pakistan has been seen as a dependent variable of moves made in Washington DC or by the military establishment of Pakistan. What such a blinkered view ignores is that the United States of America and the army are the two entities most hated by the people of Pakistan. Islamic militancy thrives by feeding on these two hatreds and by projecting them as being inimical to the future of Pakistan.

By confronting Mr Musharraf and by exposing the hollowness of the General’s commitment to democracy, Mr Sharif has placed himself to be against the army and against Uncle Sam. He has thus identified himself with the perceived interests and aspirations of the people of Pakistan. This can only be described as a political masterstroke even though its immediate aftermath was deportation. His arrival and departure have thrown the politics of the country into a turmoil that Mr Musharraf will find difficult to contain even with all the external help he can muster. Mr Sharif’s gamble is inevitably constrained by certain features of Pakistan society and polity. Civil society is virtually non-existent, and the polity remains feudal, with politicians emerging from the land-owning class. These features do not augur well for the success of democracy in Pakistan. Yet, as history has shown, the coming of the people to politics often has unintended and unpredictable consequences. The exile of Mr Sharif contains the promise of another kingdom.