Lawyers protest outside the supreme court in Islamabad on Tuesday. (Reuters)

Islamabad, April 3 (AP): Some 4,000 opponents of President Pervez Musharraf rallied in Islamabad today, the biggest street protest yet in the capital against his removal of Pakistan’s chief justice.

The demonstration by political activists and lawyers outside the supreme court during a hearing in the judge’s case remained largely peaceful. However, it kept the political heat on Musharraf, who faces mounting pressure at home and abroad to curtail eight years of military rule.

“Everyone should support the chief justice, it is our moral duty” Makhdoom Amin Fahim, vice-president of the main Opposition Pakistan People’s Party, told the crowd.

Musharraf triggered the biggest political crisis of his presidency when he suspended Ifitkhar Mohammed Chaudhry, the court’s independent-minded chief justice, on March 9.

Today, protesters filled the road in front of the supreme court waving colourful party flags — most of them from an alliance of hardline religious parties. “Musharraf, killer of justice,” they chanted, and brandished banners with slogans including “Don’t destroy the judiciary.”

At a similar protest during the last hearing on March 16, police resorted to tear gas and rubber bullets to contain a phalanx of rock-throwing demonstrators and raided a private TV network offering live coverage of the unrest.

This time, hundreds of police and paramilitary troops were positioned near the court, where concrete blocks and coils of barbed wire closed approach roads to traffic.

Today’s hearing adjourned after five hours without any verdict.The next hearing was set for April 13. Chaudhry’s lawyer dismissed the allegations against their client and said his suspension was unconstitutional.