Bhutto party announces candidate

The party of assassinated former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto nominated former National Assembly speaker Yousaf Raza Gilani as its candidate for prime minister, a party spokesman said yesterday.

President Pervez Musharraf has asked the National Assembly to reconvene tomorrow to elect the prime minister.

Gilani, a vice chairman of Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party, is all but guaranteed to win the vote with the support of his party, which won the most seats in a February 18 parliamentary election, and its coalition allies.

The PPP is led by Bhutto's widower, Asif Ali Zardari, but he is ineligible to stand for prime minister because he is not a member of parliament.

"After holding consultations within the Pakistan People's Party, with the coalition partners and also with the chairman of the party... consensus has been achieved in nominating the candidate," party spokesman Farhatullah Babar told reporters as he announced Gilani's name.

The chairman of the party is the son of Bhutto and Zardari, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who has returned to Pakistan for a short break from Britain where he is studying.

The 19-year-old was appointed after his mother's assassination on December 27 but has said he will complete his studies at Oxford University before entering politics.

There had been speculation the PPP would nominate a stop-gap prime minister and Zardari would take over the post after entering parliament via a by-election.

Analysts said the appointment of Gilani, a low-key Bhutto loyalist, was likely to add to speculation Zardari would seek to become prime minister.

"It's not a nomination you'd expect for a five-year term," said political analyst Masooda Bano. "He's proved his loyalty but even in the public mind he doesn't have that strong a presence."

The small pro-Musharraf Muttahida Qaumi Movement said it was withdrawing its candidate for prime minister and would vote for the PPP candidate to show goodwill.

But the main pro-Musharraf party, the Pakistan Muslim League (PML), which came a poor third in the election, said it would be fielding a candidate whose name would be announced today.

Musharraf, an important US ally, will swear in the prime minister on Tuesday and the Government is expected to be sworn in later this week.

The president, who came to power as a general in a 1999 coup, appears increasingly isolated and there is intense speculation over how long he will be able to hold on to power.

The incoming government has pledged to pass a resolution to reinstate Supreme Court judges whom Musharraf dismissed in November out of fear they could 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.

Gilani, from the central province of Punjab, was National Assembly speaker from 1993 to 1997 during Bhutto's second term as prime minister. He later spent four years in prison on charges of making illegal government appointments, charges he said were politically motivated.