New Pakistan Premier Orders Release of Judges

Azhar Masood, Arab News

ISLAMABAD, 25 March 2008 — Yousaf Raza Gilani of Pakistan People’s Party was overwhelmingly elected Pakistan’s 22nd prime minister by members of the National Assembly yesterday.

In an immediate challenge to President Pervez Musharraf, Gilani ordered the release of all judges sacked and detained by Musharraf under emergency rule in November.

Hours after the prime minister’s speech in Parliament, police removed barbed wire barricades outside the Islamabad residence of sacked Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. Chaudhry briefly appeared on the balcony of his house where he had been under house arrest for the last four months and thanked Parliament for his freedom.

A lawyer, who met him, said the judge expected to return to his duties soon. Attorney Athar Minallah quoted Chaudhry as saying he was “extremely grateful” to the new Parliament and was looking forward to resuming his duties. Minallah said Chaudhry would start meeting visitors today.

In his speech after election, Gilani also called on Parliament to pass a resolution seeking a UN investigation into Benazir Bhutto’s assassination on Dec. 27 in a gun-and-bomb attack that the former government blamed on militants. Gilani won with 264 votes in the 342-seat lower house, the speaker told the assembly.

The only other contender, Chaudhry Pervez Elahi of the Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid) that backs Musharraf, won 42 votes. There were several abstentions. The announcement triggered cheers and shouts of “Long Live Bhutto” from supporters in the visitors’ gallery. Bhutto’s son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, was also in the gallery.

“It is because of the martyrdom of Benazir Bhutto that democracy is being restored. It is a historic event,” Gilani told the assembly shortly after the announcement.

Gilani will be sworn in today. There has been speculation that Gilani will be a stop-gap premier until Bhutto’s widower Asif Ali Zardari, who is not an MP, becomes eligible to stand for the post by contesting a by-election in May.

But local daily The News quoted Zardari denying this, saying that he was not interested in the job and that Gilani would be prime minister “for five years and not for three months.”

A court earlier yesterday acquitted Zardari of involvement in the 1996 murder of a retired judge, his lawyer said, the latest in a string of cases against him that have been dropped in the past month.

With input from agencies

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