By Muhammad Najeeb, IANS
Islamabad : Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, freed from house arrest late Friday night, was Saturday prevented from meeting deposed chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, even as Attorney General Malik Qayyum said emergency was likely to be lifted within a month.
Bhutto was freed following orders directly from President Musharraf at the behest of the US. She was under arrest to prevent her addressing a massive party rally in nearby Rawalpindi Friday against imposition of emergency.
After being barred from entering the Judges Colony to meet Chaudhry, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairperson said she had come to meet the “chief justice… I believe under the law Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry is Pakistan’s Chief Justice”.
Bhutto argued with the police officials for 15 minutes at the Judges Colony gate. Following the police refusal to let her in, she moved to the Constitution Avenue where about 200 journalists were staging a protest against the closure of television channels and restrictions imposed on the media along with the announcement of the emergency.
“I am here to express solidarity with the journalists. I condemn restrictions on the media by the military regime,” Bhutto told journalists, saying her party believes in the freedom of expression.
“My fight is also for democracy, for independence of judiciary,” she said while pledging to continue struggle against dictatorship.
“We are for freedom, we are with the media,” she said.
Bhutto said she would lead a long march against emergency Tuesday and before that she would also meet members of civil society and diplomats.
The former prime minister was scheduled to meet more than 60 diplomats based in Islamabad later in the evening over dinner.
She is expected to raise the matter of the reinstatement of the Supreme Court judges during her discussions with the envoys and urge them to pressurize President General Pervez Musharraf in this regard.
PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar said that Bhutto would lead the march from Lahore to Islamabad Tuesday to compel President Musharraf to give up the post of the army chief, end the emergency rule, restore the constitution and hold elections on time.
Meanwhile, Musharraf chaired a Corp Commanders’ meeting in nearby Rawalpindi. This was his second meeting with the army top brass since the imposition of emergency.
Informed sources said the agenda of the meeting included reviewing the situation in the country, security in the Tribal Areas and Swat in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), especially in relation to the future strategy for the restoration of law and order in the Swat Valley.
Musharraf had earlier announced that he would lift emergency “very soon” and hold elections before Feb 15.
Attorney General Qayyum, however, said Saturday that emergency was likely to be lifted within one month.
“It is mainly because of the law and order situation in some parts of the country. We hope it will continue to improve as it is improving now,” Qayyum told reporters.
Asked about petitions against Musharraf’s presidential candidacy, Qayyum said he was trying to see that the Supreme Court resume the hearing as soon as possible.
There are nine judges in the apex court and the hearing would be resumed soon after the formation of an 11-memebr bench. He hoped that two more judges would be appointed in a day or two.
Meanwhile, restrictions on the deposed judges continued. More than 60 judges of the Supreme Court and high courts refused allegiance to Musharraf after the proclamation of emergency and did not take oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO).
Most of these judges, including Justice Chaudhry, are under undeclared house arrest.
Justice Javed Iqbal, who did not take the oath under PCO, was shifted to his hometown Quetta by a PIA flight PK-363 from Islamabad under heavy security at the airport.
As part of their ongoing protests throughout the country against the imposition of emergency, lawyers continued to boycott the court proceedings Saturday.