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Pakistan PM Orders Judges Freed Monday 24 March 2008 New Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gillani has ordered the release of all judges detained under emergency rule, minutes after being elected by MPs. President Pervez Musharraf sacked dozens of judges in November and former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry was among those still held. Mr Gillani is from the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), which emerged the main winner of recent elections. This is the first time in 12 years that the PPP will head the government. It will lead a coalition that has a substantial majority. UN Probe Mr Gillani won the parliamentary vote by 264 votes to the 42 of Musharraf ally Chaudhry Pervez Elahi. Mr Gillani made two key pledges in his speech following his election. The first was to demand "the immediate release of all the arrested judges", sparking cheers from most of the gathered MPs. Mr Musharraf had sacked the judges because the Supreme Court was set to rule on whether his re-election as president was legal. Most have since been freed from detention. Police have reportedly begun removing barbed wire from outside Mr Chaudhry's home in Islamabad and activists climbed over walls into his compound. Mr Gillani's second pledge was to seek a resolution calling for a UN investigation into the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. "Democracy has been revived due to the sacrifice of Benazir Bhutto," Mr Gillani said. He urged MPs to help him in his tasks. "My past experience in parliament has shown me that if you want this country to work, the parliament must be supreme, constitution must be sacred and rule of law enforced." Daunting Task The PPP nominated Mr Gillani as its candidate at the weekend. The BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan in Islamabad says Mr Gillani is much admired within the PPP. He resisted pressure from President Musharraf to desert the party, refusing to do any deals with him. The former parliamentary Speaker went to jail in 2001, serving five years following a conviction over illegal government appointments. The sentence was passed by an anti-corruption court formed by President Musharraf as part of what he termed measures to cleanse politics. His opponents say it was a means of intimidating and coercing their members to join his government. Mr Gillani will have the daunting task of holding together a large coalition, tackling Islamic militancy and severe economic problems. The PPP, which was led by Benazir Bhutto until her assassination in December, emerged as the biggest party in the February elections. It is now headed by her widower, Asif Ali Zardari. On Monday he was quoted in The News newspaper as saying that Mr Gillani would serve a full five-year term as prime minister. There has been widespread speculation that Mr Zardari only wants the next prime minister to hold the post on an interim basis while Mr Zardari takes the necessary steps to make himself eligible to become prime minister. That would include Mr Zardari winning a parliamentary seat in a by-election. Pakistani Parliament Elects Gilani Prime Minister Monday 24 March 2008 Islamabad - Pakistan's National Assembly elected as prime minister on Monday Yousaf Raza Gilani, a top official in assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's party, five weeks after it won a general election. In an immediate challenge to President Pervez Musharraf, Gilani said he would order the immediate release of judges Musharraf detained after he declared emergency rule in November. He also called on parliament to pass a resolution seeking a U.N. investigation into Bhutto's assassination on December 27 in a gun and bomb attack blamed on Islamist militants. Gilani won with 264 votes in the 342-seat lower house of parliament, the speaker told the assembly. The only other contender, Chaudhry Pervez Elahi of the Pakistan Muslim League that backs Musharraf, won 42 votes. 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 and was seen wiping away a tear. Bhutto party supporters also chanted "go Musharraf, go". "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, a vice chairman of Bhutto's party and a former National Assembly speaker, had been expected to win easily with the backing of his Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and its coalition partners, including the party of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif which came second in the February 18 polls. There had been speculation the PPP would nominate a stop-gap prime minister and Bhutto's widower, Asif Ali Zardari, who now leads the party, would take over the post after entering parliament via a by-election. But party officials rejected such speculation, saying Gilani would be prime minister for a full five-year term. Musharraf is due swear in Gilani on Tuesday. He is expected to begin naming ministers to his cabinet this week. Musharraf has been politically isolated since the defeat of his allies in the election and there is speculation that his old foes forming a government will try to force him from power. Barricades Removed Gilani, a soft-spoken, resolute person, was jailed in 2001 by the Musharraf government for making illegal appointments, but was freed in 2006. He said the charge was politically motivated. While in prison, Gilani wrote a book that advocated a strong military, but one removed from politics. He has called for the repeal of constitutional changes made by Musharraf to bolster his authority, including the power to dismiss a government. The PPP-led coalition almost has the two-thirds majority in the two-chamber parliament needed to amend the constitution. Gilani said his government would strengthen parliament. "If you have to run the government, then you have to ensure the supremacy of parliament, the rule of law and the constitution," he said. He held out an olive branch to the opposition, saying they would be respected, but his order for the release of the judges, though expected, set a tone of confrontation with Musharraf. Minutes later, authorities removed all barricades from outside the house of former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and other judges held under house arrest in Islamabad. Supporters were later seen entering Chaudhry's house. The incoming coalition partners have pledged to pass a resolution to reinstate the judges Musharraf dismissed out of fear they would rule unconstitutional his own re-election in October by the previous assembly. If reinstated, the judges are expected to take up legal challenges to the president. The United States and other Western allies fear political instability in their nuclear-armed ally, which is already facing a campaign of attacks by al Qaeda-inspired militants, if there is confrontation between the president and the new government. Gilani also asked the assembly to pass a resolution condemning the "judicial murder" of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Benazir's father and Pakistan's first popularly elected prime minister. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was toppled by the military in 1977 and hanged two years later after a controversial court ruling in which he was found him guilty of murder. --------- Additional reporting by Zeeshan Haider; Editing by Robert Birsel and Bill Tarrant.
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