Pakistani authorities have released dozens of opposition leaders and workers following an order by the country's chief justice, officials said on Friday.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani authorities have released dozens of opposition leaders and workers following an order by the country's chief justice, officials said on Friday.
The activists were held at the weekend after threatening to stage protests against the re-election of military ruler President Pervez Musharraf on October 6.
"Those detained under the maintenance of public order laws have been released on the direction of the Supreme Court," an interior ministry spokesman said.
Among those freed late on Thursday were Javed Hashmi, acting chief of exiled former premier Nawaz Sharif's party, and another central leader of the party, Raja Zafarul Haq.
"The court's decision is a massive embarrassment for the government," Hashmi said on Friday.
"They detained us unlawfully and suppressed our democratic rights."
He said the intervention of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Thursday showed that the "era of oppression and arbitrary detentions under General Musharraf was over."
"We will continue with our struggle for ending military dictatorship and restoration of democracy," added Hashmi, who was freed from threee years in jail on sedition charges in July.
Chaudhry himself fought off an attempt by Musharraf to sack him earlier this year, a move that sparked mass protests and turned the judge into an opposition icon.
The Supreme Court was expected to rule on Friday on several opposition legal challenges which argue that Musharraf is ineligible to run for re-election on October 6 while he is still army chief.
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