ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Responding to days of massive protests demanding that Pakistan's government reinstate judges sacked by the previous president, the government through executive order will restore the seat of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, a spokesman for the prime minister said early Monday.
Pakistani Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani planned to make the announcement in a speech at some point Monday, the spokesman told CNN.
Hundreds of lawyers held protests over the past week between Karachi and Islamabad, demanding that President Asif Ali Zardari live up to a promise to reinstate judges, including Chaudhry, dismissed by then-President Pervez Musharraf.
The protests are part of a "Long March," which demonstrators had planned to cap with a sprawling sit-in at the parliament building in Islamabad on Monday.
After sweeping into power in parliamentary elections last year, Zardari's Pakistan Peoples Party promised to reinstate the judges within 30 days of taking office. The deadline came and went.
The government responded to the recent intensification of protests by banning political demonstrations in two of the country's biggest provinces, Punjab and Sindh. It also detained several hundred activists Wednesday, but protesters have said they will not be deterred.
Police in Pakistan have fought running battles with stone-throwing protesters who defied a government ban on rallies and congregated in large numbers in Lahore.
The procession had been relatively peaceful until it reached Lahore in the Punjab province, the home base of opposition leader Nawaz Sharif.
There, the crowd was incited by conflicting reports that authorities had detained Sharif to prevent him from leading the rally toward Islamabad.
Officers in riot gear fired tear gas at the demonstrators near the Lahore Supreme Court. As soon as the sting from the gas wore off, the protesters regrouped, only to be chased away by police wielding batons.
Authorities made several arrests. Ambulances were seen at the location.
Soon afterward, Sharif emerged from his residence and told reporters he had been placed on house arrest but that he refused to abide by it.
"This house arrest they have put me under, this detention, we don't accept this detention," he said. "My brothers, today don't be scared, don't be nervous. These obstacles are temporary. ... These must be brought down. Only by bringing these down can we reach our destination."
Throughout the day, the opposition and the government went back and forth with claims and denials about Sharif's apparent detention.
First, the party's acting President Makhdoom Javed Hashmi said Sharif was ordered confined to his residence for three days. The police detention order was meant to preserve law and order ahead of the march to the capital, Hashmi said.
Then, Pakistan's Information Minister Qamar Zaman denied Sharif had been placed under house arrest.
And the government of Punjab said police presence outside Sharif's house was part of security measures the government has taken to ensure a peaceful march.
Several hours later, party spokesman Siddique-ul-Farooq said police had tried to serve detention orders but no one from the party received them.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Sharif on Saturday, as well as Zardari, a senior administration official said. The official would not provide details, but a statement issued by Zardari's office said Clinton expressed continued U.S. support for his government and said the United States wants to see a stable, democratic system strengthen in the country.
Although a U.S. special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan spoke to Zardari last week, Clinton's phone call is the highest level of U.S. intervention since the judiciary crisis began, and is seen as illustrating deep U.S. concern over stability within Pakistan.
The political turmoil in Pakistan comes just a year after the country celebrated a return to democracy. It has forced the government's attention away from a deadly fundamentalist insurgency in its tribal areas and an economy that's on the verge of collapse.
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