Islamabad: Pakistan police placed leading opposition figure and former cricket captain Imran Khan under house arrest today, hours after President Pervez Musharraf imposed emergency rule citing militancy and a hostile judiciary.
Activisit Asma Jahangir, chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, was also placed under house arrest, as was dismissed chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.
''Imran Khan has been put under house arrest while (opposition lawyers) Munir A Malik and Aitzaz Ahsan were arrested under a one-month detention order,'' Khan's close aide and senior lawyer Hamid Khan told Reuters.
Aitzaz Ahsan, president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, told reporters at his home he was being arrested. "One man has taken the entire nation hostage. Time has come for General Musharraf to go," he said. Fellow lawyers shouted "Go Musharraf Go" as Ahsan was taken away by police.
Most private television channels were taken off the air. Other troops sealed off the thoroughfare where the presidency building, the National Assembly and the Supreme Court are located. Shots were heard in several neighbourhoods of Karachi, where there is strong support for former prime minister and opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.
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