Islamabad, Aug 13 - Former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf, booked for illegally detaining Supreme Court judges after declaring an emergency Nov 3, 2007, can be arrested only on the direct orders of the government since he enjoys legal and constitutional immunity, say police officials.

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

'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,' the newspaper added.

Meanwhile, 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 material like locks and barbed wire to seal off their houses to which they had been confined.

The 'others' named in the first information report (FIR) included officials of the police, the city administration and the interior ministry who were stationed in the capital during the emergency and played the main role in detaining the judges.

Lawyers that Dawn spoke to disagreed with the police, saying constitutional immunity only protected a sitting president. After vacating office, an individual 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 brief or misuse their authority, they can be arrested and prosecuted, lawyers pointed out.

They also said a 'weak' FIR (first information report) had intentionally been lodged to protect the accused from a possible high treason case under article 6 of the constitution.

The Islamabad police Monday registered a criminal case against Musharraf (FIR No 131 dated 10-08-09) under section 344/34 of the Pakistan Penal Code following the orders of the Additional Sessions Judge, Islamabad, Mohammad Akmal Khan.