(Adds detail on accusations, judge returns, lawyer comment)

By Kamran Haider

ISLAMABAD, March 21 (Reuters) - Hundreds of Pakistani lawyers and opposition supporters protested outside the Supreme Court in Islamabad on Wednesday, demanding justice for the country's suspended top judge and denouncing the government.

The suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry on March 9 outraged the legal community and has triggered President Pervez Musharraf's biggest political crisis, raising concern about stability ahead of elections due around the end of the year.

"Our struggle will continue until the dictatorship ends," Qazi Hussain Ahmed, leader of an opposition alliance of religious parties, told the crowd of his supporters, lawyers and members of liberal opposition parties.

The move to sack Chaudhry led to suspicion Musharraf feared the independent-minded judge would block any attempt by the president to keep the post of army chief, which he is due to give up this year.

Musharraf said in a television interview on Monday that elections due late this year or early next would be held on time, and he ruled out imposing an emergency to end the uproar.

Dealers on Pakistan's main stock market said Musharraf's comments had cleared some uncertainty.

The government has not given details of the accusations against Chaudhry but a newspaper published them on Wednesday.

The main one appeared to be that Chaudhry used his position to help his son get a public-sector job and had "unlawfully influenced, harassed and intimidated" various people in doing so.

Many judges and lawyers see the move against him as an attack on the independence of the judiciary. Seven judges and a deputy attorney-general have resigned this week.

Lawyers and opposition activists clashed with police in Islamabad and Lahore last week. Protests have continued this week but there has been no serious trouble.

CALL FOR OPEN COURT

The top judicial watchdog hearing the accusations was due to have its third closed session on Wednesday but postponed it, without giving a reason, until April 3.

Protesting lawyers said the move was aimed at taking the sting out of their campaign. Some also said it might have been to allow time for the country's second-most-senior judge, Rana Bhagwandas, to be sworn in as acting chief justice.

Bhagwandas, a Hindu, was in India on March 9 when Chaudhry was suspended. He returned on Wednesday but declined to comment except to say everything would be done according to the constitution and the law.

Chaudhry has demanded a public hearing into the accusations against him, said a politician who met him on Wednesday.

"He told us that 'if the government has courage, they should try me in an open court'," Asfandyar Wali Khan, leader of a small nationalist party, told a rally in Islamabad where protesters, many carrying party flags, shouted "Go Musharraf Go".

Chaudhry was kept under virtual house arrest with his family for the week after his suspension. His lawyers say he is now free to meet anyone he wants although he has not made public appearances or given interviews.

But one of his lawyers said Chaudhry would begin a tour of the country on March 28 to talk to lawyers about his case.

Police in the city of Lahore said they rounded up 45 opposition activists on Tuesday night. Hours later, several hundred lawyers rallied there.

About 100 lawyers tried to march in the city of Quetta until police fired teargas at them, a witness said.

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