Deposed Pakistan judge heads for protest rally

PAKISTAN: Pakistan's deposed Chief Justice left his Islamabad home on Tuesday to join a "long march" calling for the government to reinstate him and other judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf.

Hundreds of lawyers pumped their fists in the air and chanted "Go Musharraf go!" and "Here comes the lion!" as Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry set off for the city's airport in a convoy of vehicles, an AFP photographer witnessed.

Chaudhry, who was sacked by Musharraf under emergency rule in November, will fly to Lahore and then drive to the central city of Multan as part of a caravan of vehicles before addressing lawyers from across the country.

The lawyers are due to hold a major protest in Islamabad on Thursday. The rallies will be a fresh show of opposition to the embattled Musharraf as he rejects speculation that he will quit - but they will also pile pressure on the new government to give Chaudhry and the other judges their jobs back.

Security was tight in Islamabad as the lawyers gathered outside Chaudhry's house, where he spent four months under house arrest after his ouster by the US-backed president.

Thousands of lawyers set off from various cities including the southern commercial hub of Karachi on Monday, with some burning an effigy of Musharraf in Multan.

Musharraf, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999 while he was army chief, turfed out Chaudhry in March 2007, sparking large and often violent protests by lawyers.

Islamabad, Tuesday, AFP