Restrictions Eased on High-Profile Pakistan Lawyer; Protest Planned re Judges
Initially jailed and then held under house arrest for months, a high-profile Pakistan lawyer has been able to speak out again after the country’s recent parliamentary elections.
Attorney Aitzaz Ahsan, president of the country’s Supreme Court Bar Association, has been held virtually incommunicado for months after President Pervez Musharraf’s suspension of the Pakistan constitution and imposition of virtual martial law Nov. 3. But on Monday night, the restrictions against him were eased, heralded by the sudden ringing of cell phones that had been blocked, reports the Los Angeles Times.
Although the Times article indicates that Ahsan was still, at least at that time, restricted to his home, other accounts say he has been released from house arrest. Among them: the Sify News, an Indian publication, says Ahsan was released but some judges are still forbidden to speak out.
“In a sign that restrictions imposed by Musharraf may be loosening up, Interior Minister Lt. General Hamid Nawaz told reporters here that detained judges were ‘free to move,’ but were not allowed to meet with media, politicians or lawyers,” the Sify News reports.
It says Ahsan called in a Lahore press conference for judges to be released by March 8, and promised, as the publication puts it, that “lawyers from all over Pakistan will come to Islamabad and lay siege to parliament from March 9, the first anniversary of the suspension of Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry,” if the March 8 deadline isn’t met.
Arrested in early November, at the same time that Musharraf removed numerous Pakistan appellate judges from office, Ahsan “called it ‘staggering’ that Western nations had failed to speak up for judges that Musharraf ordered removed last year, apparently out of fear they would rule his presidency invalid,” the Times writes.
The situation of Pakistan’s lawyers and judiciary has sparked protests there and in other countries, including the U.S., in recent months.
Earlier coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “ABA Expresses Solidarity With Pakistani Lawyers”
ABAJournal.com: “In Smuggled Letter, Pakistan’s Ex-Chief Justice Backs Independent Courts”
ABAJournal.com: “British Bar Groups Call for Release of Pakistan Legal Leaders”
ABAJournal.com: “Deposed Pakistan Chief Justice Still Under House Arrest”
ABA Journal: “Lawyers in Black”
ABAJournal.com: “Former Top Pakistan Judge Blames Country’s Western Allies”
