Pakistan's government says it will seek a review of a Supreme Court ruling that barred opposition leader Nawaz Sharif and his brother from elected office.
The move is being seen as a gesture to calm heightened political tensions.
It comes ahead of a rally by lawyers and opposition activists planned for Monday in the capital, Islamabad.
Earlier, Pakistan's information minister resigned amid a growing clampdown by the government on protests by lawyers and opposition groups.
Sherry Rehman tendered her resignation after a cabinet meeting on Friday night, as leading television station Geo was blocked in major cities.
Police have also arrested several deomstrators and sealed off city exits amid growing anti-government protests.
Negotiations offered
Mr Sharif has thrown his weight behind Monday's "long march".
Opposition groups are demanding that the president reinstate sacked judges.
President Asif Ali Zardari's administration has offered negotiations to end the present crisis, but the rallies remain banned.
On Saturday, police sealed off city exits to activists trying to march on the capital and stopped one of Pakistan's most respected lawyers, Ali Ahmed Kurd, from boarding a flight to join the protests in Lahore.
Police also detained a handful of people when about 100 protesting lawyers and supporters of Mr Sharif's party gathered in the central city of Multan.
Shops were shuttered and streets were empty of traffic, as protesters - followed by police vans - streamed towards exit points barricaded with shipping containers to stop them leaving.
Talks offered
Top British and US diplomats have intervened to urge leaders to avoid violence and solve their problems.
After initially threatening to deal with protesters strictly, President Zardari has offered to hold talks with opposition leaders.
But Mr Sharif says he has no faith left in the government.
He has vowed to keep up the demonstrations until the judges are reinstated, in line with a promise made by President Zardari when he took office last year to reverse the actions of former President Pervez Musharraf.
Mr Musharraf removed chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and some 60 other judges in 2007, fearing that he would be declared ineligible to contest a presidential election while in military uniform.
The move triggered a countrywide protest, spearheaded by lawyers, which ultimately forced Mr Musharraf to quit in August 2008This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation