ISLAMABAD, Aug 12 Without direct orders issued by the government, police would not be able to arrest, or even question, former president Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf for keeping the chief justice and other superior court judges in illegal confinement after proclamation of emergency, police officers told this correspondent on Wednesday.

They said that former president and yet to be named 'others' in the FIR could not be arrested because of constitutional and legal immunity.

Besides, police are not authorised to approach the affected people (judges) and the 'other' accused to record their statement and investigate the matter because they were senior government officials.

The accused would be approached through the heads of their respective departments. Likewise, efforts would be made to record the judges' statements through registrars of superior courts, but whether they would agree to that was another matter.

Investigators have started collecting data, including orders issued during the judges' detention, names of the issuing authorities, and officials who implemented it and who arranged materials like locks and barbed wire.

They said that the 'others' included some officials of police, city administration and interior ministry who were stationed in the capital during the emergency and played the main role in detaining judges.

The Superintendent of Police, City Division, and the Sub-Divisional Police Officer, Secretariat, are supervising the investigation, they said, adding that the legal department of police was also involved.

On the other hand, lawyers said that constitutional immunity only protected a sitting president. After vacating the presidency, a person could be arrested and prosecuted, they added.

Similarly, government officials are immune if they perform their official duty legally, but if they exceed their official capacity or misuse their authority, they can be arrested and prosecuted.

The lawyers said a 'weak' FIR had been lodged intentionally to protect the accused from a possible high treason case under Article 6. It may be mentioned here that a complaint had been filed with the Secretariat police regarding the detention of the judges by Advocate Athar Minhallah and by bar presidents of Rawalpindi and Islamabad on March 3, 2008.

The lawyers had urged the authorities to register a “criminal case against Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf and other officials, including the minister of interior, secretary interior, capital's chief commissioner, inspector general of police, senior superintendent of police and the deputy commissioner”.

They had also advised the police to register a case against the then president and his collaborators under Section PPC 102 (commencement and continuance of the right of private defence of the body), PPC 107 (abetment of a thing), PPC 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint), PPC 344 (wrongful confinement for 10 or more days), PPC 441 (criminal trespass), PPC 442 (house trespass), PPC 503 (criminal intimidation), PPC 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) and PPC 338.