Foreign Correspondence

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Pakistani president swears in new PM Gilani
Tue Mar 25, 2008 5:19am EDT



By Robert Birsel .. pg 1 of 3 ..

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf swore in new Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Tuesday, a day after parliament elected the top official from assassinated opposition leader Benazir Bhutto's party.

In an apparent snub to the increasingly isolated Musharraf, Bhutto's widower, Asif Ali Zardari, and their son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who together lead her party, declined to attend the ceremony at the presidency.

"Long live Bhutto," one of the guests at the ceremony shouted as Gilani completed his oath.

Musharraf and Gilani shook hands at the end of the ceremony.

State television said Zardari and his son, who has returned to Pakistan from Britain where he is studying, had been invited to the ceremony that was broadcast live.

Musharraf's popularity has largely evaporated over the past year and his political allies were soundly beaten in February 18 elections won by Bhutto's party weeks after she was assassinated.

Also invited to the swearing-in was former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, whose party came second to Bhutto's party in the election, state television said, but he too declined to attend.

Sharif, the prime minister then army chief Musharraf ousted in a 1999 coup, is joining a coalition led by Bhutto's party with at least two smaller parties. Continued...
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