LAHORE, Jan 31: The government of Punjab stopped Supreme Court Bar Association president Aitzaz Ahsan from leaving his house on Thursday after the expiry of the period of his detention.

Mr Ahsan was arrested on Nov 3, the day President Gen (retd) Musharraf imposed the emergency rule in the country. He was initially detained in solitary confinement in Adiala Jail and then put under house-arrest in Lahore.

“I tried to drive away from my parking lot to the Lahore Press Club when police parked a van behind my car,” Mr Ahsan told reporters. A large number of supporters ringed Mr Ahsan and raised slogans against President Musharraf.

Mr Ahsan said his last detention order issued on Dec 31, 2007, had lapsed on Wednesday night, but he was being kept confined to his house unlawfully. He refused to accept the copy of a fresh detention order produced an hour after his house arrest order had lapsed.

He said the government could not keep him confined after the lapse of 90 days because Article 10 (4) of the Constitution necessitated that a detained person be produced before a review board if the government wanted to extend the detention. “I am president of the Supreme Court Bar Association. Neither PCO judges of the Supreme Court nor of the high court took any action in the backdrop of my illegal detention,” he added.

Mr Ahsan said that a majority of SC judges were still confined to their houses along with their children. He said the regime had not only deposed the judiciary but also muzzled the media.

He said President Musharraf had met his daughter in Geneva where she worked as an executive officer with the World Economic Forum. “Instead of appreciating her work, which has been greatly appreciated by her bosses, the general started accusing me of hatching conspiracies and Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry of corruption.”

When asked if Attorney General Malik Mohammad Qayyum had offered him a role in the national government, Mr Ahsan said he had not received any such offer.

“The AG asked me if I could do anything for him. I had told him to resign,” Mr Ahsan said about his meeting with Mr Qayyum.

About Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, he said if President Musharraf could talk about fathoming the facts of her assassination, he should have no problem in accepting the PPP’s demand for a UN-led probe. “His refusal to make a request to the UN for a probe into the assassination of Ms Bhutto is casting damage to the government and its agencies.”

Answering a question about the lack of major political parties’ involvement in lawyers’ movement, Mr Ahsan said that major political parties were engaged in election campaigns. He said he had asked lawyers not to press parties hard against their political agenda.

He expressed the hope that political parties and lawyers would continue the struggle for reinstatement of the deposed judges and restoration of the Constitution. He said the lawyers’ movement would not only continue but would also gain momentum.

Pakistan Bar Council member Ramzan Chaudhry, Justice (retd) Nasira Iqbal and SCBA office-bearers were present.

According to late night TV channel reports, the government of Punjab withdrew the fresh orders of detention of Mr Aitzaz Ahsan which had been issued earlier in the evening.