Silenced Pakistani lawyer is speaking out

He wasted no time getting to the point.

"The best option for Musharraf is that he should quit," Ahsan declared, referring to the man who had ordered him confined and muzzled since November.

That would be Pervez Musharraf, the president of Pakistan and now a severely weakened leader whose allies in the parliament were for the most part defeated at the polls Monday. The resounding defeat set off noisy celebrations across the country but also, more quietly, sprang the lock that had kept Ahsan under harsh conditions of house arrest.

A celebrated lawyer, Ahsan was shut away in jail and then in his home here for speaking out against Musharraf's six-week emergency rule late last year and for defending Pakistan's popular chief justice, whom the president had summarily dismissed.

The crackdown on Ahsan turned this distinguished, articulate man into a national hero, a prisoner of conscience whose confinement, in the eyes of many, symbolized the arrogance and highhandedness of Musharraf's rule.

The first sign of easing restrictions on Ahsan came about 9 p.m. Monday when his cellphones began ringing after months of being blocked. Then, the official minders assigned to keep watch on him inside his home failed to turn up Tuesday morning, allowing him access to his study.

Although police still prevented him from venturing outside, by late afternoon Ahsan was besieged by journalists. He spent the next few hours adding to the swelling chorus demanding Musharraf's resignation, warning the United States against underestimating public anger, reciting his own original poems and deprecating, without totally ruling out, the idea of being tapped to become prime minister in the expected new government.

During an interview at his home, Ahsan's lawyerly, even tones, honed by years addressing the court, could not completely mask the anger behind some of his words.

"Musharraf is himself now the problem. He is not the solution," he said. "I think all people who are his friends should advise him that this is the best time to bow out gracefully."