Military ruler Musharraf sacked the independent-minded Chaudhry on March 9, sparking nationwide demonstrations and a tense political crisis now spilling into its second month.

"Go Musharraf, go" the protesters chanted, and "Musharraf is America's pet dog," as hundreds of paramilitary troops and baton-wielding riot police kept them away from the imposing court building.

Some opposition party demonstrators set fire to a dummy and a poster of the president and beat them frantically with their shoes in a sign of disrespect, an AFP photographer said. Others torched piles of old tyres.

"Our message for Musharraf is that people want real democracy and not the mock arrangement that we have now," cricket hero-turned-politician Imran Khan told AFP at the rally.

Lawyers wearing smart black suits and crisp white shirts held black flags and mobbed Chaudhry's car as he arrived at court and again as he left. A couple of lawyers climbed on top of the vehicle.

The suspended chief justice has denied charges laid by Musharraf including that he abused his position to get his son a senior police job and to amass a fleet of cars.

Islamic fundamentalist party workers and supporters of the former premiers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif held separate but simultaneous protests under the blazing sun.

The hearing was later adjourned until April 18 after lawyers for Chaudhry raised concerns about members of the panel dealing with the case, known as the Supreme Judicial Council.

A uniformed effigy of Musharraf was torched in the eastern city of Lahore, where another 4,000 lawyers and opposition supporters rallied in front of the provincial assembly building, an AFP reporter said.

Hundreds of lawyers blocked a busy road in the southern city of Karachi and boycotted courts for the day, and demonstrators also met in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

In Islamabad, police set up body scanners to screen all protesters entering the downtown area where the rallies were held, and erected roadblocks to check every car coming into the capital.

Police arrested 200 people on Thursday in Islamabad, Rawalpindi and other towns "to prevent potential troublemakers from coming onto the streets and creating law and order problems," a government official said.

Opponents say Musharraf suspended Chaudhry illegally in a bid to weaken the judiciary and make it easier for him to stay on as army chief past 2007, when the constitution says he is meant to give up the position.

He insists he acted constitutionally and was moving to stem corruption.

Musharraf is expected to seek re-election by the outgoing parliament for a further five-year mandate ahead of national polls due late this year or early next -- a move that could spark other legal challenges.