Pakistan’s court decided today that the former leader Nawaz Sharif, who was sent into exile in 2000 after a military staged coup, could come back to the nation, in what may be a direct  defiance to Pakistan’s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

Sharif, who dislikes  the current government, heads one of the most powerful political campaigns against General Musharraf, and he desires to run opposite him for president in the upcoming elections.  The decision might  give fuel to the return to Pakistan of Benazir Bhutto, who was prime minister prior to Sharif, and has also been hiding and is a possible potential candidate to the presidency.

As a nemesis to both General Musharraf and Ms. Bhutto, Mr. Sharif’s return could force Washington to rethink their plan of backing the president as the pivot point of its war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban in the region, and many American officials’ desire to see the general and Ms. Bhutto in a  agreement  to share power in Pakistan.