ISLAMABAD, Pakistan &#8212 President Gen. Pervez Musharraf defied Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Monday, sending commandos to the airport and tossing out a bitter rival hours after he returned from exile in hopes of a making political comeback and opposing the military leader.

The expulsion of Nawaz Sharif, who was ousted as an elected prime minister by Musharraf in a 1999 bloodless coup, could deepen the general’s unpopularity and undermine the legitimacy of upcoming elections.

Not long after he arrived from London to cheers from supporters accompanying him on the plane, Sharif was charged with corruption and money-laundering and bundled away by police from the airport VIP lounge.

Four hours after landing, he was on a special flight to Saudi Arabia.

His unceremonious departure for the country where he had been exiled in 2000 scuttled his plans for a grand homecoming to campaign against the U.S.-allied Musharraf’s bid for election to a new presidential term amid growing public resentment over military rule.

“Musharraf has probably taken a decision to twist any law to do what he can do to stay in power. This is the politics of survival,” said Rasul Bakhsh Rais, a political scientist at Lahore University of Management Sciences.