ISLAMABAD — President Musharraf lifted Pakistan’s six-week-old state of emergency and restored the constitution today, easing a crackdown that has enraged opponents and worried Western supporters.

Information Minister Nisar Memon said Mr. Musharraf had signed the order lifting the emergency. He called it a “historic day” and said next month’s parliamentary elections would cement the country’s return to democracy.

“The caretaker government is under oath to hold free, fair, transparent, and impartial elections to put the country back on track,” Mr. Memon said.

The order included a controversial clause that enshrined decisions Mr. Musharraf made under the emergency, including his dismissal of independent-minded judges. Such decisions “shall not be called into question by or before any court,” the clause said.

Mr. Musharraf still faces criticism at home and abroad that the January 8 election will be flawed. The American-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 November 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,” a South Asia researcher at New York-based Human Rights Watch, Ali Dayan Hasan, said.

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

Today’s order required judges, including those appointed by Mr. 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 the 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 Mr. Musharraf if widespread cheating is avoided.

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

A senior leader of the opposition coalition Muttaheda Majlis-e-Amal, or United Action Forum, Liaquat Baloch, called Mr. 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,” Mr. Baloch said.

Mr. 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.

But steps he took yesterday to tweak the constitution appeared to confirm the opinion of many legal experts that the president’s case had been weak.

The president removed a condition from the constitution stating that civil servants — including army officers — had to wait two years after their retirement before running for elected office, Attorney General Malik Mohammed Qayyum said.

Mr. Musharraf stepped down as army chief only last month.

Mr. Qayyum said other changes sealed the retirement of purged Supreme Court judges, including a former chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, who either refused or were not invited to sign a fresh oath after the emergency. Their replacements swiftly approved Mr. Musharraf’s re-election in October by a Parliament stacked with his supporters.