Islamabad, Nov 15: Deposed Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has resolved to stand shoulder to shoulder with the legal fraternity in their struggle for the return of rule of law in Pakistan.

"I would fight till the last drop of my blood, " a senior lawyer quoted Chief Justice Chaudhry, as saying.

Addressing lawyers at the Peshawar High Court (PHC), Athar Minallah said that Chief Justice Chaudhry had recently rung him up.

"Chief Justice Chaudhry told me that he has been held incommunicado and his phone connections have been disconnected, while the cellphones have also been jammed, " adding that the Chief Justice managed to contact him from someone else’s cellphone.

He said on March 9 Chief Justice Chaudhry stood eyeball to eyeball with Musharraf accompanied by other five generals by defying their unconstitutional orders to step down as the top adjudicator of the country.

The judges, who took oath under the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO), popularly known as PCO judges, have intrigued against the independence of the judiciary, he said.

Athar went on to say that that the lawyers' struggle would continue till the restoration of the pre-November 3 judiciary.

Meanwhile, Justice Chaudhry, who has been under house arrest since November 3, approached the Supreme Court registrar to express his apprehension that he might be forcibly shifted to Quetta by the Islamabad administration.

A lawyer close to the family of Justice Chaudhry said that an ‘order’ had been forwarded to the registrar requiring him to direct Islamabad’s Inspector-General of Police to take the ‘necessary action’.

"This order is being served through us because there are no other means since the Hon’ble Chief Justice is under house arrest and all his telephone connections have been severed, " he said, adding that the order had also been served on the authorities concerned.

"I am not interested in going to Quetta or elsewhere and it will be an act of abduction and forcible detention for which the Interior Secretary, Islamabad’s commissioner, Deputy Commissioner and Assistant Commissioner on duty shall be responsible along with law-enforcement agencies, " Justice Chaudhry said.

"Presently, I am holding the post of Chief Justice of Pakistan under the Constitution, and I am occupying the official accommodation, " he said in his letter to Supreme Court Registrar.

He said he and his family members were not allowed to go out of the house and his children were not allowed even to go to school and university. (ANI)