Authorities have lifted the house arrest imposed on opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, police said Friday, hours before the visit of a senior U.S. official expected to ask Pakistan's military leader to end emergency rule.
"The government has withdrawn the detention order," Zahid Abbas, a senior police official, told an Associated Press reporter near the barricaded house in the eastern city of Lahore where Bhutto has been confined since Tuesday.
"The house is no longer a sub-jail but security will remain for her own protection. She's free to move and anyone will be able to go to the house," Abbas said before dawn.