British Bar Groups Call for Release of Pakistan Legal Leaders

Updated: British bar groups are calling for the release and reinstatement of judges and lawyers who remain imprisoned in Pakistan after President Pervez Musharraf's Nov. 3 suspension of the constitution and removal of numerous appellate judges from office. Their efforts coincide with a visit by Musharraf to the U.K. over the weekend.

Among those still being detailed, reports the London Times, are Iftikhar Chaudhry, the deposed chief justice of the country's supreme court, and Aitzaz Ahsam, president of the Supreme Court Bar.

Hundreds of lawyers in black business suits and ties publicly protested Thursday in Pakistan's capital of Islamabad the chief justice's continued detention under house arrest, reports CBC News.

As discussed in an ABAJournal.com post last week, nearly half of the approximately 100 top judges in Pakistan lost their jobs in the constitutional crisis last year, in what amounted to a coup against the country's independent judiciary. Among those deposed were not only Chaudhry but 13 of the 18 justices on the supreme court.

Wall Street Journal (sub. req.): "Pakistan Is Turning on Musharraf"

Updated at 7 p.m. CT.