Several thousand Sharif supporters rally outside Supreme Court

(30 Oct 2007) 1. Wide of supporters marching and holding opposition party flags 2. Zoom in on supporter cheering 3. Wide of supporters marching and cheering 4. Supporters waving flags emphatically into camera and cheering UPSOUND man saying (English): "Go, Musharraf, go" 5. Opposition party flags and banners featuring former prime minister Nawaz Sharif 6. People marching 7. Close up of security police officer 8. Security officers standing behind barred gate of Supreme Court 9. Pan left of protesters STORYLINE: More than 1,000 supporters of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif marched on Pakistan's Supreme Court on Tuesday as it prepared to hear arguments challenging his deportation last month. Sharif, whom President General Pervez Musharraf ousted in a 1999 coup, attempted to return from a seven-year exile on September 10 but was deported back to Saudi Arabia on his arrival in Pakistan, despite a Supreme Court ruling that he be allowed back. Sharif complained to the court, and on October 17 Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry ordered senior officials to explain who organised the flight that whisked Sharif from the country. The hearing was set to resume on Tuesday afternoon. Outside the courthouse in Islamabad, flag-waving supporters of Sharif's opposition party carried posters of him and played drums. They chanted, "Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif" and "Musharraf is a dog of the Americans!" Sharif still hopes to return to Pakistan to contest parliamentary elections slated for January. Meanwhile, an 11-member panel of judges continued proceedings in a separate case challenging the eligibility of Musharraf to stand in the October 6 presidential election. The court has ordered that his easy victory in the poll not be made official until it has ruled on the legality of his re-election. Opponents argue that the US-allied leader was ineligible to contest the vote as he was still army chief and so disqualified under a constitutional ban on public servants seeking elected office. The government say Musharraf can hold his army post and the presidency until his current term expires. The presiding judge, Javed Iqbal, asked lawyers to finish their arguments by Friday, when the judges would likely issue their ruling. Musharraf has promised to quit his army job before beginning a new five-year presidential term. His term and that of Parliament expire on November 15. Speculation persists that if the court rules against him, he could declare emergency rule or martial law. That would throw the election schedule into doubt, and complicate the prospects of a possible alliance between Musharraf and another former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, who was allowed to return from exile on October 18 after months of negotiations. Musharraf and Bhutto, though long time political rivals, both support the US-led so-called 'war on terror' and stress the importance of fighting Islamic extremism in Pakistan. Bhutto's massive homecoming rally was marred by a suicide bomb attack that killed 145 people. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...