Pakistan's deposed top judge to tour country

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan's deposed top judge who became a focus for opposition to President Pervez Musharraf plans to tour the country to meet lawyers but will not organize protests to press for his reinstatement, his lawyers said.

Former Supreme Court chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and nine colleagues were freed from nearly five months of house arrest on Monday on the orders of new prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.

Chaudhry and dozens of his colleagues seen as hostile to former army chief Musharraf's re-election as president in October were dismissed in early November when Musharraf imposed a six-week period of emergency rule.

The opposition parties of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif dealt allies of the unpopular Musharraf a stunning defeat in parliamentary elections last month and are now setting up a coalition government led by Gilani.

Leaders of the two parties, Bhutto's widower Asif Ali Zardari and Sharif, have promised to reinstate Chaudhry and his colleagues through a parliamentary resolution within 30 days of forming a government.

But that could trigger a show-down between the new government and the president.

"The primary purpose of his visit to bar associations is to thank lawyers for their unstinting support during the period of his detention," one of Chaudhry's lawyers, Munir Malik, told reporters in Islamabad. He is to begin his visits next week.

Musharraf first suspended Chaudhry over accusations of misconduct on March 9 last year, infuriating the judiciary and opposition parties and triggering weeks of protests.

"NO PRESSURE ON PARLIAMENT"

The Supreme Court reinstated Chaudhry in July but Musharraf fired him and like-minded colleagues in November after imposing emergency rule out of fear they would rule unconstitutional his re-election by outgoing legislators while still army chief.

If they are reinstated, the judges are likely to take up legal challenges to Musharraf and could end up overturning his re-election.

Aitzaz Ahsan, a fierce critic of Musharraf and Chaudhry's main lawyer, said Chaudhry's supporters would not organize protests to press for Chaudhry's reinstatement but would wait for the government to keep its promise to reappoint the judges.

"We don't want to put pressure on parliament. We accept the declaration of the leaders," Ahsan told reporters after meeting Chaudhry at his house.

Sharif, the prime minister Musharraf ousted in 1999, has been most forceful in demanding the restoration of the judges, in the belief, analysts say, that if they got their jobs back the judges would eventually rule Musharraf's presidency unconstitutional.

Bhutto's party has been less adamant, partly because, analysts say, Chaudhry had taken up a challenge to an ordinance Musharraf introduced in October erasing corruption charges against Bhutto, Zardari and others as part of a proposed power-sharing deal.

Ahsan accused Musharraf of trying to block the judges' reinstatement: "We have fears some conspiracies are being hatched from the presidency to subvert the political parties' agreement."

(Editing by Robert Birsel)