2008-03-24

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — To thunderous applause from fellow lawmakers and a packed visitors gallery, the newly chosen prime minister of Pakistan on Monday immediately released the judges detained by President Pervez Musharraf when he imposed emergency rule last year.

In a wildly ebullient parliamentary session with a heavy anti-Musharraf mood, the new prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gillani, of the Pakistan Peoples Party, also said he would seek a formal United Nations inquiry into the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister killed during a public appearance on Dec. 27.

“Our slain leader Benazir Bhutto sacrificed her life for the cause of democracy and now it is our responsibility to strengthen the democratic institutions in line with the aspirations of common people," Mr. Gillani said.

Mr. Gillani took his first steps as prime minister just after he was officially chosen by an overwhelming majority of legislators in the 342-seat lower house of the Parliament. He won 264 votes while his challenger, Chaudhry Pervez Ilahi of Pakistan Muslim League, an ally of President Musharraf, received 42.

Mr. Gillani, 55, a politician from Punjab Province, was nominated prime minister by Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of Ms. Bhutto and the co-chairman of Pakistan Peoples Party, over the weekend.

He will lead a coalition of political parties opposed to the rule of President Musharraf, the former general who came to power in a military coup nine years ago. The president, considered an important ally of the United States in its antiterrorism efforts but is increasingly unpopular in his own country.

Public sentiment here has turned sharply against President Musharraf ever since he tried to dismiss Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the chief justice of the Supreme Court, last fall. In the general elections held early this year, opposition parties were victorious.

Mr. Gillani will formally take the oath administered by President Musharraf on Tuesday.

After Dr. Fehmida Mirza, the speaker of the National Assembly, announced the result of voting, Mr. Gillani shook hands with members of the parliament, and the assembly hall erupted with anti-Musharraf slogans.

Mr. Gillani, wearing a dark blue business suit, proceeded to shake hands with a teary-eyed Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, 19, Mrs. Bhutto’s son, who is the other chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party, with his father.

For several minutes, guests in the visitors’ galleries shouted “Go Musharraf, Go!” and “Bhutto lives on!” as many members of Parliament also joined in.

In a sign that the new Parliament is likely to increasingly assert itself and reverse President Musharraf’s policies, Mr. Gillani made his first order of business an order freeing the detained judges. That proclamation received deafening applause from the members of the Parliament and the guests in the visitors’ section.

The new governing coalition had pledged to reinstate Justice Chaudhry within 30 days of taking office as well as the 13 other Supreme Court judges and 48 High Court judges who were dismissed by Mr. Musharraf.

Later in the evening, Justice Chaudhry emerged on the balcony of his house in Islamabad’s Judges Enclave—his first public appearance after being put under house arrest last November. The barricades and barbed wire outside his residence were removed by the police. Wearing a black shalwar qameez, the traditional Pakistani dress, a smiling Mr. Chaudhry waved at a large throng of crowd that had gathered for a glimpse of him. Jubilant supporters and political parties’ workers danced to beating drums.

“I and my colleagues don’t have the words to thank you for the way you have struggled in the past five months," Mr. Chaudhry said, addressing his supporters. “Our destination still lies ahead, and we have to proceed cautiously so that there are no obstacles in the path to our destination.”

Opponents of Mr. Musharraf reiterated their demand that Mr. Musharraf to step down. “There was consensus on one thing between the members of the Parliament and the guests in the visitors’ galleries,” said Ahsan Iqbal, a member of the Parliament from the Pakistan Muslim League, the party of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. “And that was: ‘Go Musharraf, Go.’ ”

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