Islamabad - Tens of thousands of lawyers and political activists were Friday converging on Pakistani capital to press the government for the reinstatement of more than 60 senior judges axed by President Pervez Musharraf.

Chanting slogans against embattled president, more than 20,000 protesters, according to a security official, were assembled in Islamabad to welcome even much larger five-day cross-country rally, dubbed the "long march," set to join them in few hours.

The march started on Monday from Southern city of Karachi kicked off its final phase Thursday in a caravan of hundreds of vehicles from the eastern city of Lahore.

It began with few thousand demonstrators but swelled immensely as it reached the garrison city of Rawalpindi, and moved towards neighbouring Islamabad to stage reportedly a two to three-day sit-in on a main boulevard, around 300 metres from the Parliament House.

"Between 75,000 and 100,000 more demonstrators are heading towards Islamabad," said the security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Highly charged crowd cheered and pelted flowers as the slow-moving motor-rally inched through Rawalpindi, where the rally organizers urged people to join them in the capital.

The gathering in Islamabad included people from different walks of life, from liberal elites to the conservative middle class and fanatic religious elements, but all of them were united on two points: sacked judges should be restored and Musharraf must go.

"My quest for justice has brought me here. These deposed judges are a ray of hope. I believe when restored they will dispense justice to common man as it is done to the elite," said Mohammed Ashraf, a factory worker, who had travelled 375 kilometres from Faisalabad to participate in the Islamabad rally.

Tahira, a right activist, said: "Look at Islamabad, it is heartening scene. New democratic Pakistan is emerging. Musharraf and his comrades should read the writing on the wall. There is no room for a dictator in this country."

Some 6,000 police and paramilitary troops were deployed to restrict the demonstrators from approaching the parliament building and the presidential office, around which the roads were blocked with cargo containers, concrete blocks and barbed wire.

However, the protest was expected to remain peaceful as agreed upon by the organizers and the 10-week-old coalition government, which will be pressed by the crowds to restore the judges, including chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, removed by Musharraf under an emergency order on November 3.

The move that was apparently made to pre-empt a Supreme Court ruling against his controversial re-election turned the president into a highly unpopular figure and caused the crushing defeat of his political allies in the February 18 general elections.

Slain ex-premier Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) of Nawaz Sharif, who is also a former prime minister, formed the government.

Both parties agreed on judges' reinstatement but later developed serious differences over the mechanics of the move, prompting the PML-N to pull out its members from the cabinet in protest.

Junior coalition leader Sharif, whose government was toppled by Musharraf in a 1999 coup, saw off the vehicular rally in Lahore.

"I salute all these deposed judges who refused to bow before a dictator," Sharif told the rally attended by more than 12,000 people. "Pakistan is on the brink of disaster. The whole nation has to rise to save it."

The motorcade received a rousing welcome in several towns falling on the 270-kilometre route people chanted slogans like, "Go Musharraf, go," and "Restore the judges."

"Our struggle is for the independence of the judiciary, for the supremacy of justice and the rule of law," Aitzaz Ahsan, a senior attorney and the head of the lawyers' movement, told the roadside rally in the town of Gujrat. "Our struggle is for the upholding of people's fundamental rights."

Analysts said a large crowd in Islamabad would create immense pressure on Musharraf to step down even though he is not the prime target of the lawyers' rally.

All the roads leading to Musharraf's residence in Rawalpindi were completely sealed off as the rally rolled past the heavily guarded compound also housing residences of military commanders. (dpa)