QUETTA, March 10: Advocate Aamir Rana, a close relative of Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, has claimed that the government was putting pressure on the chief justice to resign from his post.

“Authorities concerned are demanding resignation from the chief justice,” Mr Rana told BBC on Saturday in an interview by telephone.

However, after the interview he went into hiding as he informed a lawyer that some people in ‘plain cloths’ raided his house to arrest him.

“I am safe and sound,” he informed one of his fellows through a massage, adding that the government wanted to arrest him. When contacted, Mr Rana’s cellphone was found switched off while nobody was attending his residence telephone.

Mr Rana, who is nephew of Justice Chaudhry’s wife, told the BBC that the movement of the chief justice had been restricted to his official residence in Islamabad. “No close relatives are allowed to meet him,” he said, adding that all telephones of the official residence had been disconnected.

Mr Rana claimed that President Musharraf asked Justice Chaudhry not to pass remarks against the government during the hearing of different cases. According to him, Justice Chaudhry was facing a lot of pressure from the government to dismiss cases of missing persons.