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Dina: Thousands of Pakistani lawyers and workers neared Islamabad on Friday on the final leg of a "long march" to demand the reinstatement of judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf.
Cheering crowds turned up along the route to welcome the cavalcade of around 400 cars and buses which left the eastern city of Lahore late on Thursday.
The lawyers are planning a sit-in outside the parliament to press the government to restore the judges.
According to security officials, 6,000 paramilitary troops and police are deployed in the capital.
Top interior ministry official Rehman Malik told reporters that the government has a "sufficient" number of security forces deployed to protect the capital.
He estimated that the protesters would not stay in Islamabad for more than 48 hours but said they would be provided with food and water.
Lawyers are expected to arrive in Islamabad at around 9 pm after completing the 276-kilometre journey from Lahore, the culmination of a nationwide journey that began on Monday.
Musharraf sacked Chaudhry and around 60 other judges during a state of emergency on November 3 when it appeared they would overturn his re-election as president the previous month. He also tried to fire him earlier in the year.
The new coalition government led by the parties of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto and ex-PM Nawaz Sharif, which defeated Musharraf's allies in elections in February, has vowed to restore the judges.
The government has announced several steps in recent days that indicate the restoration of the judges is imminent, including a decision to increase the size of the Supreme Court from 16 to 29.
It has also decided to pay seven months' salaries to all those deposed by Musharraf, according to a government spokesman.
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