WASHINGTON, Nov 15: In a display of solidarity with the Pakistani lawyers, more than 700 American lawyers marched outside the US Supreme Court and Congress, condemning the Bush administration for supporting a military regime in Pakistan.

“We the lawyers of America call upon General Musharraf to end the emergency rule and restore the Constitution,” said William Neukom, president of the American Bar Association, which sponsored the rally in Washington.

“We want him to reinstate the judges of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and to release those lawyers and other leaders who have been wrongly jailed for their lawful protest of his lawless actions.”

“Gen Musharraf’s actions are an open assault on courts and an open assault on the rule of law,” said former US Attorney John McKay, now a professor at the Seattle University School of Law.

“Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere,” said Mr McKay, quoting Martin Luther King Jr.

Akram Shaikh, former president of the Pakistan Supreme Court Bar Association, warned the rally that Gen Musharraf would like the situation to deteriorate “so that he can hand over power to another general.” The international community, he said, should not let that happen. “I would request President Bush to kindly withdraw his recognition,” he said.