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Quetta: Pakistan's deposed top judge who has became a focus for opposition to President Pervez Musharraf got a hero's welcome in his hometown of Quetta yesterday at the beginning of a tour of the country to meet lawyers.
Former Supreme Court chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and nine colleagues were freed from five months of house arrest last week on the orders of new Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.
"I'm happy coming home after 18 months. Quetta is my home town," Chaudhry said as he got off a flight from Islamabad.
About 500 political activists waving party flags and black-suited lawyers thronged Quetta's small airport shouting "long live the chief justice" and "Go Musharraf, go". They showered Chaudhry with rose petals as he came out of the airport terminal.
Security was tight with police, including members of an anti-terrorist force carrying automatic rifles.
Chaudhry and dozens of his colleagues seen as hostile to former army chief Musharraf's re-election as president in October were dismissed in November when Musharraf imposed a six-week period of emergency rule.
The opposition parties of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif dealt allies of the unpopular Musharraf a stunning defeat in February 18 parliamentary elections and are setting up a coalition government led by Gilan.
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