Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao on Monday officially confirmed the expulsion of former Pakistani prime minister and opposition leader Nawaz Sharif after his arrival home on Monday.

"The deportation is in the prime interest of the nation," the Dawn news channel cited him telling reporters in Mansehra city of North-West Frontier Province.

The politician was initially arrested on corruption charges and flown out of the airport in a police helicopter but then brought back and placed on a Pakistan International Airlines Airbus that left for the Saudi city of Jeddah.

Sharif had returned to the country from a seven-year exile to lead opposition to President Pervez Musharraf, who ousted him in a 1999 military coup. dpa ns jh