Pakistani lawyers to press government

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Disagreement over the judges led to a split in the ruling coalition this week, dashing hopes for political stability in the nuclear-armed country after Musharraf's resignation last week.

Political uncertainty, militant violence and economic woes have undermined investor confidence, leading to a sharp slide in Pakistan stocks which authorities have tried to halt by setting a floor for the key share index.

Protesting lawyers are due to hold sit-ins on roads across the country on Thursday to press the coalition, led by the party of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, to reappoint dozens of judges Musharraf dismissed when he imposed emergency rule last November.

Lawyers were at the forefront of opposition to Musharraf after the former army chief clashed with the then chief justice in March last year, and their protests pose a challenge to the coalition that came to power after February elections.

"There was a subversion of the constitution on November 3 and that is what people are protesting against," said lawyer Athar Minullah, an aide to former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.

"We are committed to the supremacy of the constitution and this will continue until the actions of November 3 are reversed," he said of the protest campaign.

The country's second biggest party, led by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, pulled out of the coalition on Monday, saying Bhutto's party broke promises to give the judges their jobs back.

Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party, led by her widower Asif Ali Zardari, has been dragging its feet on the judges because it fears Chaudhry will take up a challenge to an amnesty granted to Zardari and other party leaders from graft charges last year, analysts say.

POLICE BUS BLOWN UP

As the politicians tussle over the judges and who will replace Musharraf as president, violence has been surging in the northwest where security forces are battling militants in several areas and the militants are striking back with bombs.

Government soldiers backed by air strikes killed nearly 50 militants in heavy clashes in the northwest on Wednesday, while on Thursday, a car bomb blew up a police bus near the town of Bannu, killing nine policemen and two passers-by, police said.

Musharraf's support for the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism was deeply unpopular with many Pakistanis but Zardari, who is seen as close to the United States, has vowed to press ahead with the effort.

Washington, an important source of aid for Islamabad, says al Qaeda and Taliban militants orchestrate violence in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the West from sanctuaries in the northwest.

Nervous investors withdrawing their funds from Pakistan in the face of violence and political instability have sent the country's financial markets skidding lower.

The rupee has lost about a quarter of its value against the dollar this year. Pakistan's stock market, which rose for six consecutive years to 2007 and was one of the best-performing markets in Asia in that period, has fallen about 30 percent.

Struggling to halt the slide, stock exchange authorities announced early on Thursday they were setting a floor for the index at Wednesday's closing level.

Some dealers said the move would help confidence, at least in the short-term, and the index opened more than 1 percent higher before slipping back slightly.

Some dealers hope a September 6 presidential election, when members of the country's four provincial assemblies and two-chamber national parliament vote for Musharraf's replacement, will bring some clarity to the political outlook.

Bhutto's party has nominated Zardari while Sharif's has put up a former Supreme Court judge, Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui.

The main pro-Musharraf party nominated a former government minister and top party official, Mushahid Hussain Sayed.

No party has a simple majority of votes though analysts expect Zardari to be able to gather enough support to win.

(Additional reporting by Kamran Haider; Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by Jerry Norton)