Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistani police charged with clubs and arrested more than 150 lawyers challenging President Pervez Musharraf's emergency rule as the U.S. said it was reviewing military aid to the country in response to the decree.

Police beat lawyers and used tear gas to disperse protesters in cities across Pakistan. Stocks slumped amid speculation that Musharraf was arrested in a coup today, which the military denied, saying it was a rumor.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in Beijing for talks with the Chinese government, called on Musharraf to restore democratic rule. Musharraf suspended the constitution on Nov. 3 for the second time since he took power in a 1999 military coup, saying judicial interference in government affairs had sparked terrorism and extremism throughout the country.

``It is difficult to say how long the emergency will remain,'' Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said yesterday. ``It will remain as long as it is required.''

U.S. aid to counter-terrorism operations in Pakistan will not be affected, Gates said at a news conference in Beijing.

The declaration of emergency rule came as the Supreme Court was nearing a decision on the legality of Musharraf's Oct. 6 re- election as president while also serving as army chief. Sacked Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry called the decree ``unlawful'' and urged citizens to ``struggle'' for democracy.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in the West bank city of Ramallah today that Musharraf should restore Pakistan's democratic institutions ``quickly and urgently.'' She has said the Bush administration will review its financial aid of more than $1 billion a year to Pakistan.

Ordered Arrest

The government yesterday ordered the arrest of about 500 opposition supporters and activists and said the elections due by Jan. 15 may be delayed for a year. The number of detainees may have risen to 1,500, Agence France-Presse reported, citing police officials it didn't identify.

Police and paramilitary troops surrounded the High Court buildings and the Supreme Court building in Islamabad, sealing them off. Lawyers were not allowed to enter the courts, Shaukat Rauf, a lawyer in Rawalpindi said by phone today.

About 150 lawyers were arrested in the biggest city of Karachi and the garrison town of Rawalpindi as they demonstrated outside their respective High Court buildings, lawyers said. Authorities arrested ``dozens'' in the city of Lahore, lawyer Zafar Mughal said in a telephone interview.

Medical Help

``Several judges are under house arrest and some of them need medical help,'' Faqir Mohammed, an official of the Supreme Court said in an interview from his Islamabad office. ``I have tried to go and meet the former chief justice but the authorities refused to let me go.''

The president appointed Abdul Hameed Dogar, a Supreme Court judge, to replace Chaudhry, seven months after he first tried to remove the top judge. Chaudhry had been reinstated by his peers in July. Several other judges swore an oath under the emergency proclamation and courts were barred from questioning the order or making any judgment against the president and his government.

``I am virtually arrested,'' Chaudhry said today in a statement read over the phone his lawyer Ali. ``The doors of my house are locked. An army major came this morning and locked the doors and took away the keys.''

Court Surrounded

Pakistan's deputy information minister Tariq Azeem refused to comment on arrests or detention of judges.

One of Musharraf's political opponents, the former cricketer Imran Khan, escaped from detention.

``Imran Khan escaped house arrest from his Lahore home today,'' the politician's spokesman Ahmed Awais said in a phone interview from Lahore. ``He is safe and has gone underground. He is in hiding for now.''

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's party said the opposition leader plans to address a rally in Rawalpindi on Nov. 9, ignoring a ban on public gatherings issued by Musharraf.

Bhutto will travel to Islamabad tomorrow, Nabeel Gabol, a parliamentarian from her Pakistan Peoples Party told reporters in Karachi. ``If they want to arrest us then they can,'' Gabol said. ``We are not afraid.''

Bomb attacks on Bhutto's convoy in Karachi killed at least 136 and injured 500 others on Oct. 19, hours after she returned to Pakistan, ending eight years in self-imposed exile to lead her party in national elections.

Pakistan's stocks fell the most in more than 16 months on concern emergency rule will delay national elections and derail record economic growth. The benchmark Karachi Stock Exchange 100 index fell 635.44 points or 4.6 percent to 13,279.60 at the 2:15 p.m. local time close.

Media Gag

Citizens and journalists staged a protest outside the Karachi Press Club today, where they wore black armbands and shouted slogans against the government. Heavy contingents of police beat protesters.

``We are demanding the basic rights of common citizens,'' said Naeem Sadiq, a human rights activist who organized the rally. ``The higher judiciary has rejected the proclamation of emergency and we will fight it.''

Musharraf issued a law that bans the publication of any material ``that defames, brings into ridicule or disrepute the head of state or members of the armed forces or executive, legislative organs.'' Offenders can be jailed for three years.

The government is negotiating with broadcasters to resume transmission, after privately run television news channels went off air across the country on Nov. 3, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told reporters yesterday in Islamabad.

To contact the reporters on this story: Khaleeq Ahmed in Islamabad, Pakistan on Khalid Qayum in Islamabad, Pakistan on kqayum@bloomberg.net