Detained Pakistani lawyer challenges Musharraf

LAHORE, Pakistan, Feb 20 - (Reuters) - A Pakistani lawyer and fierce opponent of President Pervez Musharraf defied a government detention order on Wednesday and walked out of his home where he has been held to issue Musharraf a challenge.

Aitzaz Ahsan was mobbed by scores of fellow lawyers and supporters as he walked past police outside his home in the eastern city of Lahore, after rejecting a conditional government offer to release him.

"I was asked to give an undertaking that I would not indulge in political activities as the elections are over. I rejected the offer," the firebrand lawyer said to loud cheers.

Ahsan, carried aloft by his cheering supporters, called on Musharraf to step down after his allies suffered a crushing defeat in Monday's parliamentary elections.

"This was a referendum against Pervez Musharraf," he told reporters. He later returned to his house.

Ahsan, a cabinet member in one of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's governments, boycotted Monday's election but he could emerge as a candidate for prime minister if he won a by-election and got back into parliament.

Ahsan, who is also president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, said lawyers would stage a rally in Islamabad on March 9 if authorities did not reinstate judges sacked by Musharraf when he imposed emergency rule on November 3.

It was on March 9 last year that the then army chief Musharraf suspended chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, outraging lawyers and whipping up a protest campaign by the judiciary and opposition.

Ahsan then acted as chief counsel for Chaudhry and organized a series of protests convoys to different parts of the country.

Ahsan, Chaudhry and some other judges were detained when Musharraf imposed emergency rule.

Earlier on Wednesday, Ahsan said his confinement was eased on Tuesday, as soon it became clear the pro-Musharraf, former ruling party had lost the election, and visitors were allowed access in to his house to see him.

The parties of Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister Musharraf ousted in a 1999 coup, came out on top in the polls and are to hold talks on a coalition government on Thursday.

(Additional reporting by Jon Hemming; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)