Pakistan lawyers mull street protests

The issue is bedeviled by complex legal and political calculations.

Zardari, the widower of slain ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, wants to retain judges installed by Musharraf after the November purge and follow the restoration of the old judges with a raft of reforms expected to clip their powers.

Time-consuming legislation is required to protect that course from legal challenges that could cast the country into institutional chaos, Zardari's party argues.

But Sharif insists that since the ouster of the judges was illegal, they can be restored with a simple order from the prime minister -a point of view shared by many prominent lawyers.

Zardari insists he can still persuade Sharif to return to the government fold. But his reluctance to force a showdown with Musharraf has stirred talk that he is preparing to realign himself with the president if the coalition collapses.

Lawyers first took to the streets in March last year, when Musharraf first tried to fire Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry.

The protests galvanized the country's fragmented opposition and prompted a chorus of calls for an end to the rule of Musharraf, who had seized power in a 1999 military coup.

Musharraf imposed a state of emergency in November and swept the judges away just as they were considering the legality of his re-election to another five-year presidential term.

The former army strongman accused Chaudhry of corruption and conspiring against his plan to guide Pakistan back to democracy. But the crackdown only deepened his unpopularity and contributed to the political eclipse of his allies.