Former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif made a successful comeback from exile today in his second attempt this year.
"We want democracy and nothing else," Mr Sharif told the BBC by telephone on arriving back in his hometown Lahore from the Saudi city of Medina.
"I am here to play my role and also make my own efforts to rid the country of dictatorship."
Nawaz Sharif
Thousands of frenzied supporters pushed past police barricades into the airport in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, carrying Mr Sharif and his brother on their shoulders and cheering wildly as the returning leader stood before them on a raised platform. A bullet-proof car carrying Mr Sharif left the airport in a procession, surrounded by screaming supporters, toward a shrine in the centre of the city.
Tight security had surrounded Mr Sharif after the plane carrying him from Saudi Arabia touched down - but it appeared to melt away amid the chaos.
Mr Sharif's arrival was a fresh challenge to President General Pervez Musharraf, who ousted him in a bloodless 1999 coup. Mr Musharraf has grown increasingly unpopular since he declared a state of emergency on November 3, locking up thousands of opponents, purging the supreme court and muzzling the media.
The scene at Lahore airport was eerily reminiscent of the early jubilation that greeted another former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, when she came back to her home city of Karachi in October, but the numbers of supporters were far lower. Ms Bhutto's return was greeted by a massive suicide bomb that killed about 150 people in a procession through the streets.
State television showed Mr Sharif, dressed in his trademark white shirt and a dark waistcoat, on an airport stairwell next to his politician brother and surrounded by security officials, waving to the cameras.
In a reminder that Pakistan remains under emergency rule, security forces had rounded up some Mr Sharif's activists and attempted to seal off the airport.
But about 1,000 of Mr Sharif's supporters found a way through tight security around the airport to swarm into the terminal building, waving the green flag of his party and shouting slogans including "Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif" and "Go, Musharraf, go".
Police lifted batons to drive them back from the arrivals area, but had no space to swing them amid the dancing, jubilant crowds.
The plane on which Mr Sharif came home was provided by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, where Mr Sharif has spent most of the past eight years since Gen Musharraf overthrew him in 1999.
Ahsan Iqbal, a spokesman for Mr Sharif's party, said some 1,800 activists were detained to prevent them joining the welcome party. However, officials said not more than a hundred had been rounded up to stop them from creating trouble.
Authorities said they were trying to avoid any repeat of the suicide bombing which greeted Ms Bhutto.
Ms Bhutto and Mr Sharif are vying to return to power in January 8th parliamentary elections. But the ballot, which the West hopes will produce a moderate government able to stand up to Islamic extremism, has been thrown into confusion by Gen Musharraf's November 3rd imposition of extraordinary powers.
Gen Musharraf has used the emergency to pack the supreme court with sympathetic judges, who then dismissed legal challenges to him continuing as president. Mr Musharraf is expected to step down as army chief and govern as a civilian within days.
But he has so far resisted pressure to lift the emergency from Western governments, who say it will sap the legitimacy of the elections.
Authorities have issued no warning that Mr Sharif, a secular but conservative politician who enjoys good relations with Pakistan's religious parties, could be targeted by militants.
However, his arrival came just a day after suicide bombers killed up to 35 people in nearly simultaneous blasts in Rawalpindi, a garrison city adjacent to the capital, Islamabad.
A black armoured Mercedes limousine, also supplied by King Abdullah, had been waiting at the airport to take Sharif through streets lined with hundreds more supporters to a shrine in central Lahore and then on to his country estate.
Ousted by President Pervez Musharraf in a bloodless military coup in 1999 and exiled to Saudi Arabia a year later, Mr Sharif tried to return home in September, but was dispatched back to Jeddah within hours.
Gen Musharraf reluctantly agreed to allow Mr Sharif back this time, under pressure from Saudi King Abdullah, who was embarrassed by the kingdom's complicity in the exile of a Muslim leader.
Mr Sharif's reappearance could trigger large-scale defections from the ruling Pakistan Muslim League, made up of politicians who have backed General Musharraf's rule. Intelligence agencies assembled the PML from the remnants of Mr Sharif's party.
Mr Sharif, who will be 58 next month, served twice as prime minister, like Bhutto, during the 1990s.
The administrations of both leaders were dogged by graft accusations, and the country was virtually bankrupt after a decade of civilian rule was ended by Musharraf's military coup.
After the 1999 coup, Sharif was convicted of corruption and given a life sentence for hijacking, relating to his refusal to allow landing rights to an airliner carrying Musharraf.
He could be barred from standing for the January election because of the convictions.
PA