Bhutto loyalist to be Pakistan PM

PAKISTAN: A BENAZIR Bhutto loyalist jailed for five years by Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, is due to become the country's new prime minister this morning at the head of a coalition government.

Yousaf Raza Gilani, a party stalwart from southern Punjab, will lead a broad-based coalition with the clout to hobble Mr Musharraf's powers and possibly impeach him. Mr Gilani was jailed on politically-slanted anti-corruption charges in 2001 and released in 2006.

He is due to be elected by parliament today and sworn in by Mr Musharraf tomorrow. Yesterday the president put on a brave face, hailing the new government as the start of "a new era of real democracy".

"The journey towards democracy and development we started eight years ago is now reaching its destination," he said before reviewing a military parade marking Pakistan Day. Dressed in a long black coat, it was his first military parade as a civilian.

There will be little love for Mr Musharraf in the new government. The four-party coalition includes some of his most trenchant enemies, including Nawaz Sharif, who was deposed as prime minister in the 1999 army coup that brought Mr Musharraf to power, and has vowed to oust the president as soon as possible.

The new government is also likely to mean freedom for Mr Musharraf's arch-rival, former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. Bhutto officials say that the barricades around the house in which Mr Chaudhry has been under arrest since November 3rd will be lifted by the end of this week.

Mr Musharraf, who memorably referred to Mr Chaudhry as "the scum of the earth" in one interview, is likely to find co-operation with the vocal judge difficult. The new government has also pledged to restore about 60 other sacked judges within 30 days of coming into office.

Mr Musharraf's power base is dissolving fast. In Baluchistan, one of Pakistan's four provinces, his entire party has abandoned him, handing control to Ms Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP).

But Mr Musharraf can still cling to power. Instead of firing the president, Bhutto's party wants to make him a ceremonial figurehead by slashing his powers, most notably the ability to sack the parliament and prime minister at will.

The question is whether he will be able to accept such a diminished role.

© 2008 Guardian Service

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times