More than 3,000 lawyers have called on
The judge was suspended after allegedly overseeing aseries of promotions for his son, according to a list of charges filed byMusharraf and published in newspapers on Wednesday.
The allegations said Iftikhar Chaudhry also assembled afleet of cars and demanded the use of planes that he was not entitled to.
It is the first time the charges against Chaudhry have beendetailed. State media had previously only said that he was charged withmisconduct and abuse of office.
His lawyers said the allegations were "baseless".
National crisis
Musharraf, a military ruler, has faced the biggest crisis ofhis eight years in power since ordering the suspension on March 9.
The move to sack Chaudhry, whohas a reputation as an independent-minded supreme court chief, has ledto suspicions Musharraf may have feared the judge would block any attempt bythe president to retain the office of army chief, which he is due to give upthis year.
The suspension led to a series of violentprotests, with police firing tear gas at demonstrators in
On Wednesday, carrying black banners and chanting "GoMusharraf, go", the black-suited lawyers in the eastern city of Lahoreremoved barricades the police had erected on a busy road to block the march,witnesses said.
Police withdrew the cordon as the massive crowd, joined byleaders and workers from opposition parties, came out of the high courtbuilding.
The lawyers planned to stage a sit-in outside the provincialassembly building to press their demand for Chaudhry's reinstatement.
Activists held
Several dozen Pakistani opposition activists were detainedhours ahead of the protests.
Separately in
About 100 lawyers tried to march in the southwestern city of
The suspended chief justice had been due to appear before
List of charges
The misconduct allegations handed in to
The list said: "He unlawfully used his position as ajudge and chief justice of the supreme court of
His son was promoted rapidly through three differentdepartments without meeting qualifications, the charges say.
The charges also claim that Chaudhry had the use of sevenofficial cars when he was only meant to have one, that he ordered traffic to bestopped for his convoy and that he demanded the use of aircraft assigned tosenior government officials.
Aitzaz Ahsan, Chaudhry's chieflawyer, said: "This charge-sheet is childish, in fact these are notcharges. There is not a single charge on financial corruption against the chiefjustice."
Munir Malik, another of Chaudhry'slawyers, said: "It is because of the baseless nature of allegations thatthe chief justice wants an open hearing into the presidential reference."
Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 military coup, said ina television interview on Monday that his action to suspend the judge wasconstitutional and that he would not impose a state of emergency over the row.
Source:Agencies