BENAZIR BHUTTO NEWS HEADLINES STORY: - The Pakistani authorities on Friday ended the house arrest of former premier Benazir Bhutto, rights activist Asma Jahangir and other women leaders, hours before the arrival of a top US official to press President Pervez Musharraf to lift Emergency. Bhutto had been served a seven-day detention order on November 13 at the home of a leader of her Pakistan People's Party here to prevent her from leading a "long march" to Islamabad against the emergency. The government of Punjab province decided to release Bhutto, Jehangir and other detained women, state-run APP news agency reported. Police officials said the house would no longer be classified as a "sub-jail" and the policemen would remain in the area for Bhutto's "protection". They also said she would be free to move and people would be allowed to enter Khosa's house.
Despite the lifting of the house arrest of the two-time former premier, hundreds of policemen were still deployed at the residence of PPP leader Latif Khosa, where she is staying. Jahangir, the chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, was put under house arrest in her residence here shortly after President Pervez Musharraf proclaimed the emergency on November 3. The move to ease the restrictions on detained women activists and leaders came shortly before the arrival in Pakistan of US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, who is likely to urge Musharraf to end the emergency. He has named Senate Chairman Mohammedmian Soomro, a leader of the ruling PML-Q, as the caretaker prime minister to oversee parliamentary polls to be held by January 9. Despite increasing pressure from the US and Pakistan's opposition parties, Musharraf has not set a date for withdrawing the emergency and restoring key fundamental rights. The PPP's workers have been staging protests since early this week in several cities, including Lahore and Karachi, where three persons died on Thursday when gunfire erupted during a demonstration. The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, the grouping of religious parties, has announced country-wide protests against the emergency on Friday.These were the first deaths in protests against the Emergency.
