Pakistan Judge Frees Protestors
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

ISLAMABAD_ Pakistan’s chief justice today ordered the immediate release of detained opposition members as President General Musharraf formalized his controversial candidacy for a new five-year term.
Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry issued the decision after summoning police and government officials to explain who signed an order to close roads into the capital to prevent a planned lawyer-led protest against the filing of Musharraf’s nomination papers.
About 200 people — and perhaps many more — have been arrested since Saturday night. The government has defended the detentions as necessary to maintain law and order in the face of threatened demonstrations that they feared could turn violent.