Sept. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistani lawyers clashed with riot police in Islamabad while calling for the reinstatement of judges fired by former President Pervez Musharraf, having revived street protests last month following a 10-week gap.

Some lawyers were beaten by officers in front of the parliament building, the first such incident since the Pakistan Peoples Party-led government came to power in March, live footage by the local broadcasters showed. The clashes started when a number of lawyers tried to enter the adjacent Supreme Court building, AAJ television channel reported.

``We have gathered here to remind the government to fulfill its pledge to restore the judges,'' Aitzaz Ahsan, the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, said at a televised news conference before the clashes began.

The dispute over the judges splintered the five-month-old coalition government Aug. 25 after the second-biggest partner, the Pakistan Muslim League of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, withdrew from the alliance. It has also hampered efforts by the government to focus on reviving the economy and control inflation, which is at a 30-year high.

The PPP-led government in the past week re-hired 12 of the 60 deposed judges. The rehirings didn't include deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who has questioned the legality of a 2007 decree that protected the PPP co-head Asif Ali Zardari, 52, a candidate to succeed former President Pervez Musharraf, from prosecution on corruption charges.

The lawyers have rejected the re-hiring of judges, saying that their dismissal was illegal and their employment should be considered continuous.

Reinstate Judges

Farooq H. Naik, the minister for law and justice, has said the government will rehire the judges, though not reinstate them in their previous positions. Zardari wants to keep the judges appointed by Musharraf, who backed legislation withdrawing corruption charges against himself and his wife, the late Benazir Bhutto, while also reinstating the fired judges. He denies the corruption allegations.

Zardari had earlier pledged, in a March 9 agreement with Sharif, that judges would be reinstated through a parliamentary resolution.

The participants in today's protest criticized Zardari for preventing the judges from returning to duty.

The judges were dismissed after the former president imposed emergency rule Nov. 3. Some of the judges were about to rule on Musharraf's eligibility for a second presidential term.

Demonstrations

Lawyers held a country-wide protest on Aug. 28 and vowed today to hold more demonstrations until Chaudhry and other judges, who refuse to be re-hired, are restored to their offices.

The country's lawmakers plan to choose a new president on Sept. 6. Zardari, supported by the ruling PPP's lawmakers and by smaller groups in the coalition, is leading the race for the presidency.

Musharraf, 65, quit last month to avoid facing impeachment charges that he illegally ousted Sharif in a 1999 coup. Sharif, 58, had united with Zardari over the need to remove Musharraf, before they disagreed over replacing new judges with the old ones.

Sharif's party has nominated former Chief Justice Saeed-uz- Zaman Siddiqui to run for the presidency in the presidential elections against Zardari.

To contact the reporter on this story: Khalid Qayum in Islamabad at kqayum@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 4, 2008 04:58 EDT