Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was freed from house arrest late on Friday, hours after she was stopped from leaving her Islamabad home to lead a rally against the president's imposition of emergency rule.
"The detention order has been withdrawn," said Aamir Ali Ahmed, Acting Deputy Commissioner of Islamabad.
Earlier in the day police prevented Bhutto from leaving her home and sealed off the capital and the nearby city of Rawalpindi to stop a rally against President Pervez Musharraf.
Bhutto, the politician most capable of galvanizing mass protests against Musharraf's imposition of emergency rule, appealed to police to let her through their cordon.
"The government has been paralyzed," Bhutto shouted to supporters across a barbed-wire barricade.
"If he restores the constitution, takes off his uniform, gives up the office of the chief of army staff and announces an election by January 15, then it's okay," she said, vowing defiance if Musharraf did not comply.
From the Australian Broadcasting Company
Pakistan's main opposition leader Benazir Bhutto has been placed under house arrest, according to Government officials.
The house arrest comes just hours before the former prime minister Ms Bhutto was due to lead a mass rally.
Ms Bhutto and her supporters had planned the rally against the emergency rule imposed by President Pervez Musharraf earlier this week.
Pakistani police cordoned off her home and sealed off a park in Rawlapindi where the really was due to be hold.
A senior official in Islamabad said police had cordoned off Bhutto's home in the city but only for her protection.
"It has been done purely for security reasons. There are no restrictions on her movement," said the official, who declined to be identified.
A Bhutto party spokeswoman, Sherry Rehman, said Ms Bhutto was not under house arrest but police had surrounded her home.
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