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Lawyer back under house arrest

ISLAMABAD: Firebrand lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan found himself back under house arrest early on Friday despite being freed for three days just the day before, as he drove from Lahore to Islamabad with the intention of joining the deposed Chief Justice, Iftikhar Chaudhary, for Id prayers.

Mr. Ahsan was picked up on the motorway and taken to a police station before being escorted back to his home.

After being freed on Thursday, Mr. Ahsan gave several interviews warning that a “judicial bus” carrying all the November 3 ousted judges and driven by “thousands” of volunteers, would crisscross the country mobilising support for the restoration of the judiciary if Parliament elected on January 8 did not take steps in this direction within two weeks.

Another lawyer, Justice (retd) Tariiq Mahmood, who also got a three-day reprieve for Id was put back under house arrest on Thursday within a few hours after he joined a protest of journalists and civil society organisations here.

In the morning, lawyers and civil society activists here tried to make their way to Mr. Chaudhary’s home with the intention of escorting him for Id prayers to the city’s famous Faisal Mosque. But they were stopped by riot police, and offered prayers on the road, at the barricades a few hundred metres from the judge’s home.

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