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Musharraf still faces criticism at home and abroad that the Jan. 8 election will be flawed. The U.S.-backed leader cast Pakistan into turmoil and raised serious doubts over the credibility of the vote, which will determine who will form the next government, by imposing emergency rule Nov. 3.

“Musharraf’s so-called return to constitutional rule provides legal cover to laws that muzzle the media and lawyers and gives the army a license to abuse,” said Ali Dayan Hasan, South Asia researcher at New York-based Human Rights Watch.

The group urged the U.S. and Britain to pressure Musharraf “to insist on a genuine return to constitutional rule and the restoration of the judiciary.”

Saturday’s order required judges, including those appointed by Musharraf during the emergency, to take the oath of office again. He swore in the Supreme Court’s chief justice, then sat solemnly as the justice administered the oath to the rest of the court.

A leader of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party praised the end of the emergency but said it did not completely dispel concerns about the fairness of the elections.

“It is a good step, but let’s see whether the elections are free, fair and transparent,” Makhdoom Amin Fahim said.

He did not rule out cooperation with Musharraf if widespread cheating is avoided.

“But so far, it does not appear that the elections would be held in a fair manner,” Fahim said. “All the government machinery is being exploited for foul play.”

Liaquat Baloch, a senior leader of the opposition coalition Muttaheda Majlis-e-Amal, or United Action Forum, called Musharraf’s move a “fraud,” saying judges dismissed by the president have not been restored and the constitution was altered under the emergency.

“Musharraf had two targets — getting through the illegal process of his elections and purging the judiciary of independent-minded judges — and he achieved both targets,” Baloch said.

Musharraf has said he imposed the state of emergency to halt a “conspiracy” by top judges to end his eight-year rule and ward off political chaos that would hobble Pakistan’s efforts against Islamic extremism. He has also insisted that the Supreme Court, which had been poised to rule on the legality of his October re-election, was acting beyond the constitution.

BAGHDAD - The red-and-white identification card was faded. But the name was legible and the picture of the man with the necktie and tidy mustache was clear.

Aboud Awad, who worked in a medicine storage facility in Ramadi, was last seen alive by his wife and children when he went off swimming in nearby Lake Tharthar, once Saddam Hussein’s favorite fishing spot and more recently part of an al-Qaida in Iraq stronghold west of Baghdad.

Awad’s remains were discovered last week in a mass grave along with more than 20 other bodies near the manmade lake surrounded by rugged and sun-bleached scrubland.

More than 150 bodies have been unearthed in recent months from mass graves around Lake Tharthar. It’s seen as the grisly legacy of al-Qaida control of Iraq’s western deserts until being ousted early this year in an uprising by local tribes. The revolt was spurred — at least in part — by their claims of extremist brutalities.

Each mass grave uncovered around Tharthar and elsewhere in Iraq — so far at least 12 burial sites — appears to offer more evidence of the fate of Iraqis who challenged al-Qaida and its backers.

Al-Qaida is not alone in being accused of atrocities following the fall of Saddam Hussein. Shiite death squads and others have taken thousands of lives in Iraq’s sectarian meltdown.

But the mass graves now turning up in former al-Qaida territory help explain the decision by Sunni tribal leaders to fight back. U.S. and Iraqi commanders say the groundswell helped drive al-Qaida from the belts around Baghdad and forced extremists to hunt for new havens in northern Iraq.

Awad’s Health Ministry ID card, which expired April 1, was a rare solid lead to confirm the name of a body found in a mass grave.

His relatives recognized pieces of his clothing, a hospital official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of security concerns. It was unclear when Awad died, but experts said it appeared to be less than a year ago — suggesting he was killed early in 2007.

Of the 23 sets of remains in the grave, authorities were able to identify only Awad and two others. That’s typical in Iraq, where officials usually lack such forensics aids as DNA and dental records.

In the vast majority of missing person cases in Iraq, families are left guessing forever about what happened.

Whenever she hears that a mass grave has been found, Madiha al-Ani, a 75-year-old resident of Fallujah, dispatches relatives to the hospital to search for signs of her son who vanished en route home from Baghdad in February 2006. She always hopes they will come back empty-handed so she can maintain the belief that he’s alive.