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| CJ suspension: Thousands take to the streets in Pak | | | LAHORE
Thousands of lawyers protesting the removal of Pakistan's top judge attended nationwide rallies on Wednesday, scuffling with police and sustaining a judicial crisis that threatens president Pervez Musharraf's grip on power.
Musharraf suspended Iftikhar Chaudhry, the chief justice of Pakistan's Supreme Court, on March 9 on allegations that the he abused his office. The government insists the move was nonpolitical.
However, the move has sparked a nationwide lawyers strike and opposition charges that Musharraf is trying to tame the Supreme Court before elections likely to trigger legal challenges to his rule.
The row also has alarmed Pakistan's international partners, including the EU, which earned a swift rebuke from Islamabad for joining the US, in expressing its concern.
On Wednesday, about 3,000 lawyers rallied in the eastern city of Lahore, chanting anti-government slogans. The demonstrators staged a sit-in at a downtown traffic intersection near the Punjab provincial legislature.
Lawyers also boycotted proceedings at courts throughout the province, said Ahsan Dhoon, president of the High Court Bar Association.
Ahead of the planned protest, police detained about 100 opposition activists in raids on their homes in order to forestall potential violence, a Lahore police official said.
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