Pakistan?s suspended chief judge told thousands of cheering supporters yesterday that dictatorship was a thing of the past and states that ignored the rule of law and basic rights faced destruction.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry arrived in the city of Lahore yesterday after tens of thousands of supporters turned out to greet him as he travelled by road from Islamabad. The trip takes four hours but took him more than 20.

Speaking in the compound of the Lahore High Court to thousands of lawyers, ?seven of Punjab province?s 23 judges, and opposition activists outside on the street, Chaudhry made no direct reference to President Pervez Musharraf or his government.

?Nations and states which are based on dictatorship instead of the supremacy of the Constitution, the rule of law and protection of basic rights get destroyed,? Chaudhry said. The government moved to sack Chaudhry on March 9 but the legal community and opposition saw Musharraf?s move as an attack on the independence of the judiciary.

The authorities? heavy-handed ways and Chaudhry?s refusal to resign transformed a judge who was unpopular with many lawyers into a cause celebre. The crisis has blown up into the most serious challenge to Musharraf?s authority since the army chief seized power in ?999.

Well-wishers threw rose petals and clambered over Chaudhry?s four-wheel-drive car throughout his journey from the capital.

?I was among the many people who welcomed Musharraf when he took over but he wants no checks. He wants a free hand for everything but that?s not fair,? said Abdullah, 70, a farmer who waited in the town of Kharian to greet Chaudhry.

Huge crowds waving opposition group flags and chanting anti-Musharraf slogans greeted Chaudhry as he arrived in Lahore, where he later made an open-air address.

?The idea of dictatorship and collective responsibility are over,? he said. ?They are chapters from the past and those nations which don?t learn lessons from the past and repeat those mistakes, they have to pay a price.?

As Supreme Court chief, the independent-minded Chaudhry took on rights and environmental cases and last year blocked the sale of Pakistan?s biggest steel producer because of irregularities.

In his speech broadcast live on private television, an exhausted-looking Chaudhry, 58, said the Supreme Court had the right to take up basic human rights which he said were the backbone of a civilised society.