Slamming the Pakistan government for the continued detention of sacked judges and re-arrests of lawyers, a leading human rights body has charged that the 'systematic destruction of legal institutions in that country has seriously compromised the February 18 polls there'.
"Days before Pakistan goes to the polls, its lawful Chief Justice (Iftikhar M Chaudhry) and his children remain under illegal house arrest, as do many lawyers who would likely challenge election-rigging in the courts," Brad Adams, Asia director of the Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.
The rights group pointed out that leaders of the lawyers' movement, including Supreme Court Bar Association President Aitzaz Ahsan, retired Justice Tariq Mehmood, and former Bar Council Vice Chairman Ali Ahmed Kurd, were detained under the colonial-era Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance. They remain under house arrest.
"The Pakistani Constitution prohibits detention under MPO for more than 90 days. The government released them on January 31 on expiry of that period, but arbitrarily re-arrested them 48
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