A day after the Supreme Court dismissed several petitions challenging Musharraf’s pursuit of a new five-year term, the Election Commission approved his candidacy, sparking angry condemnation from protesting lawyers.

Police fired tear gas, threw stones, and used batons first to disperse the lawyers, then turned on journalists covering the chaotic clashes. Around three dozen people were injured and a similar number arrested outside the Election Commission building here and in separate rallies in Lahore.

Aitzaz Ahsan, the main lawyer for Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry during Chaudhry’s battle against Musharraf’s attempts to sack him earlier this year, was among those beaten.

"The brutality of Gen. Musharraf is being seen worldwide. Only the blind governments of the United States and Britain cannot see it," Ahsan told AFP.

Three of the country’s biggest private news channels, Geo, Aaj and ARY One, said that the government had taken them off air during the protests to stop them showing the violence.

Despite dwindling popularity and increasingly bitter opposition, Musharraf, a close US ally, also seems set to win the election.

Musharraf has been in close negotiations with self-exiled ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and has made it clear that any power-sharing arrangement will be with Bhutto and not her rival and his former nemesis, Nawaz Sharif.

For her part, Bhutto had insisted that she will not agree to such an arrangement if Musharraf does not forego his uniform.

On Sept. 10, Sharif, who is exiled in Saudi Arabia, attempted to re-enter Pakistan only to be deported by the government a few hours later.

There are now talks of rivals Bhutto and Sharif holding joint talks about the current situation.

Bhutto and Sharif have both announced that they will return to Pakistan in October. Both face arrest on pending corruption charges against them in courts.