Islamabad, Nov 4 -- The seven Supreme Court judges who refused allegiance to President Pervez Musharraf by not taking oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) remained steadfast against the imposition of emergency despite being under house arrest, a source close to them said Sunday.

"All seven judges are under house arrest but they are not going to bow before the military dictator," the source, who claimed to have met two of the judges - former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and Javed Iqbal, told IANS.

He said that no one was being allowed to enter the Judges Colony or the Judges Enclave, about half a kilometre away from the Supreme Court building here.

"Even their close relatives are not allowed to meet them and their landlines and cellular phones are not working," said the source requesting not to be named.

Only six of the 19 Supreme Court judges took fresh oath under the PCO while others refused to do. Instead, they gathered at the apex court building Saturday evening and passed an order terming the imposition of emergency as illegal and unconstitutional and asking the Supreme Court and high court judges not to take oath under the PCO.

"We are still judges, let him (Musharraf) do whatever he likes but the Supreme Court has passed an order and whoever has taken oath under PCO has committed an illegal step and violated the Supreme Court order," the source quoted the former chief justice as saying.

Justice Chaudhry who was suspended by Musharraf in March this year was restored by the Supreme Court after four months of struggle by lawyers. During that period, Chaudhry led a number of huge rallies in which hundreds of thousands of citizens participated to protest against the military dictator.

The source also said that Justice Chaudhry and other apex court judges would wage struggle against the military rule even if they were not allowed to enter the court premises.

The source quoted the former chief justice as asking what authority Musharraf was going to use to bring normalcy in the country.

"He had been an all-powerful president, chief of the army staff, had strong support from the international community but badly failed to control the militancy... now what he's going to do," Justice Chaudhry was quoted as saying.

According to the state-run Pakistan Television, six judges of the Supreme Court were administered oath Saturday night including new Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar who is from Sindh. He was appointed a high court judge by Benazir Bhutto, when she was prime minister of the country.

The judges who opted not to take the oath under the PCO included Justice Chaudhry. Justice Rana Bhagwandas, the only Hindu judge to reach the second highest position in judiciary, also did not take the oath.

Bhagwandas headed the Supreme Court when Justice Chaudhry was suspended. Unconfirmed reports said he was offered the position of chief justice under the PCO but he refused.

The governors of Pakistan's four provinces administered oath to the high court judges Saturday. In Punjab the total number of high court judges was 31 but only 12 took the oath. Likewise, in Sindh only four judges out of 27 were administered oath.

In the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), seven out of 15 judges took the oath while in Balochistan six out of 11 judges refused.

When contacted an official of the law ministry said only those judges were sworn in who accepted the PCO.

However, he said some judges asked for time before taking the final decision while some of them were not available.

The official said the situation about the judiciary would become clearer Monday.