Islamabad: Police cracked down on lawyers protesting against emergency rule yesterday, arresting hundreds across the country.
The majority of deposed Supreme Court judges also remained under virtual house arrest in the capital.
Police sources said around 1,500 had been detained since emergency was declared by President Pervez Musharraf on Saturday.
A senior police official told Gulf News most of those detained over the last three days were in Punjab, home to 60 per cent of the country's 160 million people.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz confirmed up to 500 people had been taken into preventive custody throughout the country.
Sacked Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, who Musharraf replaced after suspending the constitution, termed the martial law-like measures "unconstitutional".
"Everything that is happening today is illegal, unconstitutional and against the orders of the Supreme Court," Chaudhry said.
Oath
Five of the 19 judges of the apex court had taken oath under a Provisional Constitution Order (PCO) issued by Musharraf - also chief of the powerful army - following the clampdown.
Among them was new chief justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, now heading the top court, which was under tight security yesterday.
Senior deposed judge Rana Bhagwandas said he was confined to his house, adding other judges who did not take oath were also cloistered. Justice Chaudhry and seven colleagues held a session at the court building yesterday.
'Illegal'
They passed a judgment declaring Musharraf's measures illegal. But the overhauled Supreme Court's new registrar denied any order against the PCO had been passed, saying the judges who did not take the new oath had ceased to hold office.
Lawyers boycotted courts throughout the country yesterday and according to reports and witnesses they held demonstrations in various cities, including Lahore, Karachi and Peshawar.
In Lahore, capital of Punjab province, more than 400 lawyers were detained after police used batons and teargas to break up their rally, police sources and representatives of the Lahore High Court (LHC) bar association said.
Petals showered
Several lawyers were injured during the turmoil in and around the LHC premises, where protesters showered flower petals on the offices of those judges of the provincial judiciary who did not take oath under the PCO.
Police also used force to disperse lawyers outside the district courts in the garrison city of Rawalpindi near Islamabad, arresting around 90 lawyers, a spokesman of the district bar said.
A former judge of the Sindh High Court (SHC), Rasheed Rizvi, told the media 100 lawyers were taken into custody in the provincial capital, Karachi, where police charged black-coat demonstrators outside the judicial complex. In the city of Gujranwala, around 50 lawyers were held by police, local officials said.
Reports said some 70 human rights activists were among the detainees in Lahore, including Asma Jehangir the chairwoman of the Pakistan Human Rights Commission.
Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, newly elected president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, was the first lawyer to be detained after the state of emergency was declared.
Factbox: When was emergency rule last imposed?
In October 1999. Then army chief, Musharraf proclaimed emergency rule when he deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, suspending the constitution, dissolving the National Assembly and bringing Pakistan under the control of the armed forces.
Musharraf's suspension of the constitution this time goes beyond typical state-of-emergency provisions. He imposed the emergency rule in his capacity as army chief and not as president. He allowed the central government, provincial governments and parliament to stay. But he barred courts from issuing orders against himself, the prime minister or any authority designated by the President.
- Reuters
