Aitzaz and Justice Tariq detained yet again

Pakistani authorities Saturday detained Aitzaz Ahsan, a former member of parliament and cabinet minister under assassinated former premier Benazir Bhutto, a day after he was released from three months in detention. Ahsan was first detained under emergency powers that Musharraf invoked on November 3. He was freed late Thursday in Lahore, but was again placed under house arrest shortly after trying to fly to Benazir's home province of Sindh to express condolences over her assassination to her husband, Asif Ali Zardari.

“Mr. Aitzaz Ahsan has been detained for 30 days,” a senior home ministry official in Lahore told Reuters. He did not give a reason for the detention. Authorities renewed detention orders for senior opposition lawyer Tariq Mehmood and placed him under house arrest in Islamabad. “These orders have no legal and constitutional justification. In fact, there is no law and constitution prevailing in the country,” Mehmood said.

(Courtesy DAWN)