Lahore: Pakistan's Supreme Court Bar Association president Aitzaz Ahsan, currently under house arrest, today vowed that the legal fraternity would embark on a "long march" next month if the judges deposed during last year's emergency were not reinstated.

Ahsan, who was allowed by authorities to go out of his home here to vote in elections to the Lahore High Court Bar Association, told reporters that lawyers would launch their protest on March 9, the day when President Pervez Musharraf had first tried to dismiss former apex court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry last year.

Police yesterday sealed all roads leading to Ahsan's residence, which has been declared a "sub-jail", after he addressed a news conference with cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan.

Large contingents of police were deployed outside the house and on streets leading to it. The road blocks set up by police created problems for motorists.

Ahsan's spokesman said he had been confined to a room in his house. Ahsan, a senior leader of the Pakistan People's Party and a former federal minister, has also been denied access to telephones, the spokesman said.

The home department of Punjab province had on February 2 issued a 30-day restraining order for Ahsan, who has been detained since Musharraf imposed emergency on November 3.

Source : PTI