Pak police fire teargas during protest over judge row

Updated at 3.10PM

LAHORE: Pakistani police clashed for a second day on Saturday with lawyers protesting against government moves to sack the country's top judge as restrictions on the judge were lifted.

The suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary on March 9 has outraged lawyers and united disparate opposition parties against President Pervez Musharraf, who is expected to seek another term late this year. 

Police fired teargas and rubber bullets, detained numerous opposition activists and ransacked a television station's office on Friday during protests in Islamabad and other cities.   

Pakistani newspapers said the disturbances had damaged the government's credibility and the action against both the judiciary and the media boded ill for upcoming elections.   

On Saturday, hundreds of lawyers were meeting at the High Court in the city of Lahore to discuss the case when police fired teargas and hit out with batons outside after stopping a group of lawyers trying to get in, witnesses said.   

Lawyers in business suits poured out of the meeting and hurled stones at police who threw them back. Police chasing stone-throwers ransacked some nearby offices, witnesses said.   

Dozens of lawyers and policemen were hurt, they said.   

"It's outrageous. I can't understand why they are doing this," said Syed Zulfiqar Ali Bokhari, secretary of the Supreme Court Bar Association.

"It seems some invisible hand is trying to create chaos."   

Two vehicles were torched and rocks littered the streets as hundreds of police sealed off the High Court.   

Chaudhary's suspension has fuelled suspicion that Musharraf feared the independent-minded judge would oppose any move by him to retain his role as army chief, which constitutionally the president should relinquish this year.   

Restrictions lifted on suspended Pakistani judge

Pakistani authorities have lifted restrictions on the country's suspended top judge, one of his lawyers said on Saturday, a day after protesters and police clashed on the streets of the capital and in other cities.   

The suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary on March 9 has outraged lawyers and united disparate opposition parties against President Pervez Musharraf, who is expected to seek another term late this year.   

Lawyers were meeting in the eastern city of Lahore to discuss the case on Saturday and police fired teargas to disperse one group that tried to rally on a street outside the High Court, a witness said.   

Chaudhary, who has refused to resign, has been confined to his home since his suspension, apart from two appearances before a panel of judges considering the case against him.   

At a hearing at the Supreme Court on Friday, the panel ordered restrictions on him lifted, his lawyers said.   

He was now free to meet anyone subject to his approval, in line with the order of the panel, known as the Supreme Judicial Council, said one of his lawyers, Tariq Mehmud.   "However, they have clarified that there should be no mob, no procession and things like that," Mehmud said.   

The government denied that he had ever been under house arrest.   

Authorities have released no details of the accusations against Chaudhary but a state news agency cited "misconduct and misuse of authority".   

There has been no indication how long the hearing into the accusations will last. The panel meets again on March 21.