Police temporarily releases Aitzaz Ahsan

Police on Thursday temporarily released from detention a prominent opposition lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan, who this year spearheaded a campaign against President Pervez Musharraf, the lawyer’s son said.

Aitzaz Ahsan, a former member of the National Assembly for Pakistan People’s Party, was detained under emergency powers Musharraf invoked on Nov. 3.

“He’s been released for three days for the Eid holidays,” his son Ali Ahsan said, referring to the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday that began from Thursday.

Ahsan rose to prominence this year when he acted as chief counsel for Iftikhar Chaudhry, the Supreme Court chief justice whom Musharraf tried to suspend in March.

Chaudhry and several other judges remain under house arrest at their official residences in Islamabad.

Chaudhry’s suspension whipped up a campaign against Musharraf by lawyers and opposition activists.

Chaudhry and other judges seen as hostile to Musharraf’s October re-election by legislators while still army chief were purged after Musharraf declared the emergency.

Ahsan was not immediately available for comment but he told private news channel he and other lawyers wanted to see dismissed judges reinstated.

“We are united, we are determined, our objective is very clear and this objective is restoration of those specific, particular judges of superior courts, the high court and supreme court judges, who were judges on Nov. 2,” he said.

“We want full restoration of (the) constitution as it was on Nov. 2.”

When President Musharraf lifted the emergency last weekend he introduced amendments giving legal protection to his actions during the emergency including the appointment of new judges.

Ahsan, a former cabinet minister, was held at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi for nearly three weeks before being transferred to house arrest in of Lahore.