Tablesorter jQuery plugin issue with EE

I am using the Tablesorter jQuery plugin with EE. It’s working except for the Pager plugin.

Check the following page for how it’s used and how it’s working (demo):

http://tablesorter.com/docs/example-pager.html

Since brackets are used in the following javascript code it’s processed by EE as well. I am aware of the protect_javascript variable in EE (default is ‘y’): http://expressionengine.com/legacy_docs/general/hidden_configuration_variables.html#protect_javascript

I played with it but it’s not working.

$(document).ready(function() { 
    $("table") 
    .tablesorter({widthFixed: true, widgets: ['zebra']}) 
    .tablesorterPager({container: $("#pager")}); 
});

If my page loads the javascript above will result (in HTML) as:

$(document).ready(function() { 
    $("table") 
    .tablesorter() 
    .tablesorterPager(); 
});

Can someone please help me with this?

Thanks!