Lahore (Pakistan): Pakistani police on Saturday clashed with lawyers protesting against the government’s move to sack Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary.
The suspension of 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 raided a television station on Friday during protests in Islamabad and other cities.
On Saturday, lawyers were meeting in the High Court in the city of Lahore to discuss the case when police fired teargas outside the court after they stopped a group of lawyers trying to get in, witnesses said.
Some lawyers then came out of the meeting and threw stones at police. Several lawyers and policemen, as well as two reporters, were hurt, witnesses said.
“It's outrageous. I can't understand why they are doing this,” secretary of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Syed Zulfiqar Ali Bokhari said.
Chaudhary, who has refused to resign, has been confined to his home in Islamabad since his suspension, apart from two appearances before a panel of judges considering the case against him.
At a hearing at the Supreme Court in the capital, the panel ordered restrictions on him lifted, his lawyers said.
He is now free to meet anyone subject to his approval, in line with the order of the panel, said one of his lawyers, Tariq Mehmud said.
Chaudhary was also free to contact anyone by telephone and his television service had been restored, he 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.
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