Pakistani lawyers and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif took to the streets yesterday to demand President Pervez Musharraf reinstate sacked judges, trying to ratchet up the pressure on him ahead of next month's election.

Police in riot gear manning barbed wire barricades blocked scores of lawyers opposed to President Musharraf as they tried to approach the Islamabad home of deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.

Mr Sharif, who is calling for a boycott of a January general election unless judges whom Mr Musharraf purged to safeguard his re-election are reinstated, also tried in vain to visit Mr Justice Chaudhry.

Mr Sharif's supporters showered him with rose petals and some, chanting "Go, Musharraf, Go!", tore down a roadside banner picturing Mr Musharraf, punching it and slapping it with their sandals. They then tried to burn it.

Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto tried to visit Mr Justice Chaudhry last month, and was also blocked.

Mr Sharif and Mrs Bhutto's parties are still negotiating over demands they plan to issue Mr Musharraf on pain of an opposition election boycott.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.