Pakistan's deposed top judge to tour country

By Kamran Haider

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 organise 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.