QUETTA, Nov 10: A deposed judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Justice Javed Iqbal, was flown from Islamabad to Quetta on Saturday.

Justice Iqbal is among the Supreme Court judges who had refused to take oath under the Provisional Constitution Order.

Amid tight security, officials brought him to his residence on Gulistan Road.

(According to the BBC Urdu website, a black official vehicle with the national flag fluttering upon it carried Justice Iqbal to his residence. A security official in plainclothes sat in the front. The DIG, Quetta, told the website that Justice Iqbal was still a judge of the Supreme Court and was given the full official protocol.)

Policemen were deployed outside the residence of the deposed judge and nobody was allowed to visit him. “We have been instructed by the government not to allow the media to speak to the deposed judge,” a police official said.

Family sources said Justice Iqbal was under house arrest. However, the provincial home department said that he was not under house arrest and was free to move.

Deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Javed Iqbal and Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed belong to Balochistan and were among those judges who did not take oath under the PCO.The former chief justice of the Shariat Court, Justice Ejaz Yousuf has been inducted as judge of the Supreme Court from Balochistan.

Justice Iqbal was placed under house arrest in his Judicial Colony house on Nov 3 when he along with six other SC judges ruled against the proclamation of the state of emergency.

He was taken to the Islamabad airport amid tight security at around 9:30am on Saturday, where he boarded the Quetta-bound flight PK-363.