[JURIST] Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf [official website] appealed to anti-government lawyers on Thursday to not "spread anarchy," a day after a clash between opposing groups of lawyers in Karachi [JURIST report] prompted widespread rioting and led to at least 11 deaths. Lawyers supporting Musharraf who gathered to protest other lawyers' beating [JURIST report] of former Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sher Afgan Niazi in Lahore on Tuesday were confronted after their meeting by anti-Musharraf lawyers; fighting broke out near the city's main court complex which then spread to other areas.

New Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani [BBC profile] immediately denounced the violence [press release], which Musharraf supporters blamed on the lawyers movement pressing for reinstatement of superior court judges ousted by Musharraf after he proclaimed emergency rule [proclamation, PDF] in the country last November. Reuters has more.