(Recasts with clashes in Lahore, changes dateline) By Sil Khan LAHORE, Pakistan, March 17 (Reuters) - Pakistani police clashed for a second day on Saturday with lawyers protesting against government moves to sack the country's top judge as restrictions on the judge were lifted. The suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary on March 9 has outraged lawyers and united disparate opposition parties against President Pervez Musharraf, who is expected to seek another term late this year. Police fired teargas and rubber bullets, detained numerous opposition activists and raided a television station on Friday during protests in Islamabad and other cities. On Saturday, lawyers were meeting in the High Court in the city of Lahore to discuss the case when police fired teargas outside the court after they stopped a group of lawyers trying to get in, witnesses said. Some lawyers then came out of the meeting and threw stones at police who threw them back. Police chasing stone-throwing lawyers ransacked some nearby lawyers' offices, witnesses said. Several lawyers and policemen, as well as two reporters, were hurt, they said. "It's outrageous. I can't understand why they are doing this," said Syed Zulfiqar Ali Bokhari, secretary of the Supreme Court Bar Association. "It seems some invisible hand is trying to create chaos." Chaudhary, who has refused to resign, has been confined to his home in Islamabad since his suspension, apart from two appearances before a panel of judges considering the case against him. At a hearing at the Supreme Court in the capital on Friday, the panel ordered restrictions on him lifted, his lawyers said. He was now free to meet anyone subject to his approval, in line with the order of the panel, said one of his lawyers, Tariq Mehmud said. Chaudhary was also free to contact anyone by telephone and his television service had been restored, he said. The government denied that he had ever been under house arrest. Authorities have released no details of the accusations against Chaudhary but a state news agency cited "misconduct and misuse of authority". There has been no indication how long the hearing into the accusations will last. The panel meets again on March 21. A U.S. State Department spokesman called on both sides to show restraint. The United States sees Musharraf as a vital ally in the war on terrorism while it also encourages democracy. INDEPENDENT-MINDED The affair has fuelled suspicion that Musharraf feared the independent-minded judge would oppose any move by him to retain his role as army chief, which constitutionally the president should relinquish this year. Musharraf, accused of acting unconstitutionally in trying to sack Chaudhary, said on Thursday he would not interfere in the panel's decision. Pakistani newspapers condemned the police raid on Friday on the Islamabad office of the private television station Geo. "The media stand in danger of becoming the regime's whipping boy," the Dawn newspaper said in an editorial. Authorities earlier banned a Geo talk show that had been focusing on the issue. The News newspaper, owned by the same group that owns Geo, said the raid had damaged the government's credibility. "In one fell swoop, the government, which till now has been praised for being relatively tolerant of media criticism, has lost much of its credibility and goodwill," said the News, which has offices in the same building as Geo, one of which was damaged in the raid. Musharraf telephoned Geo on Friday evening to condemn the raid. "This should have not happened. I apologise. The culprits must be identified and punished," he told the station. Fourteen policemen had been suspended over the raid on the media offices, police said. (Additional reporting by Robert Birsel, Augustine Anthony and Kamran Haider)
