Hundreds of attorneys awaiting the verdict erupted in cheers after the court threw out charges filed on March 9 by Musharraf, under which Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry stood accused of misconduct and abuse of power.

"Pervez Musharraf should resign because the charges were illegal and have been declared null and void by the highest legal authority in the country," Ali Ahmad Kurd, a senior lawyer for Chaudhry, said outside the court in Islamabad.

"The doors of this building are from now onward closed to the generals and now no general will force martial law, and today, a new Pakistan has emerged from this court decision," Kurd said.

Munir Malik, one of Chaudhry's lawyers and the president of the Pakistan Supreme Court Bar Association, called the verdict a "historic moment".

"This is a new dawn for Pakistan," Malik told AFP.

"This supreme court has vision and courage. The basis of a free and independent judiciary has now been founded in Pakistan."

General Musharraf seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999 and retains the dual position of army chief and president.

Chaudhry's backers say Musharraf suspended him because he was an obstacle to his aim to stay on as head of the powerful military in defiance of the constitution, which says he should quit the post by the end of 2007.