Islamabad- Pakistani lawyers, backed by human rights activists and political workers, staged countrywide sit-ins Thursday to press the government to reinstate dozens of senior judges sacked by former president Pervez Musharraf.

The powerful legal community resumed protests three days after the 6-month-old ruling coalition collapsed on differences over returning the justices to their jobs.

Small but enthusiastic groups of lawyers blocked main roads across the country, jamming traffic for about two hours.

Demonstrators chanted slogans against Asif Ali Zardari, whose Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leads the government alliance and is blamed for the delay in the reappointment of the senior judges, including the former top judge, Iftikhar Chaudhry.

An angry mob tore down a banner with a picture of Zardari and beat it with sticks and shoes at Zero Point, the main entry point into Islamabad. "Shame on Zardari. Shame on Zardari," they chanted.

"We have been compelled to resort to this sort of action," senior attorney and retired justice Tariq Mehmood said at the rally. "Our demand is simple: We want to see the judges reinstated so that the rule of law returns to the country."

The lawyers mounted their demands when Musharraf fired Chaudhry in March 2007. Civil society groups and the then-opposition parties, including the PPP, joined the campaign to restore the former chief justice, turning it into a wider pro-democracy movement.

Musharraf reinstated Chaudhry in July but removed him again under an emergency order on November 3, a move that led to the defeat of Musharraf's political allies in February 18 parliamentary elections.

The PPP formed a coalition with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and forced Musharraf to resign on August 18. But a week later, Sharif pulled out of the ruling alliance, saying Zardari had broken promises on the restoration of the judges.

Analysts said the widower of former slain prime minister Benazir Bhutto has been reluctant to restore the judges because he fears they might terminate a controversial amnesty granted to him by Musharraf over charges of receiving millions of dollars in kickbacks when his spouse led the country in the 1990s.

"They say democracy is back in this country, but can democracy work without an independent judiciary?" Mehmood asked.

In several cities, traders also held a two-hour strike to express solidarity with the lawyers. In the eastern city of Okara, hundreds of people staged a sit-on on a railway track, causing the suspension of railway traffic between Lahore and Rawalpindi.

The legal fraternity has announced more protests in the coming weeks in an indication that Pakistan's political turmoil is far from over, even after Musharraf's resignation.

Zardari's nomination as a candidate in the presidential election, to be held September 6, has also been a source of resentment for Sharif, who wanted him to run for the post only after the president's powers to dissolve Parliament were stripped away.

Many political observers said they believe the squabbling between the two leaders has distracted the government from major issues such as the growing Islamic militancy in Pakistan, the country's flagging economy and severe power shortages.

A roadside bomb planted by suspected pro-Taliban militants targeted a police bus Thursday in the Bannu district of the restive North-West Frontier Province, killing six law enforcement officers and a civilian, a day after jet planes and helicopter gunships pounded insurgent positions in the adjoining tribal areas, leaving about 50 rebels dead.

Pakistan's benchmark stock index has lost more than 45 per cent of its value this year while the value of the rupee has fallen more than 20 per cent in the past six months. Food prices have risen by more than 30 per cent.

Hundreds of factory workers took to the streets Thursday in Pakistan's major industrial city, Faisalabad, to protest prolonged power outages, which they said have caused the closure of many production units and left many of them unemployed.

More than a dozen people were injured Wednesday in similar protests held in other cities and towns. Pakistan is facing an energy deficit of around 4,500 megawatts. (dpa)