Musharraf vows support for new government

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf assured his full support yesterday for an incoming government that will almost certainly be led by a Prime Minister he had jailed for over four years.

The Pakistan People's Party of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto nominated former National Assembly Speaker, Yousaf Raza Gilani, for the premiership on Saturday, though it remains unclear whether Mr Gilani is a stop-gap, keeping the seat warm for Asif Ali Zardari, Mrs Bhutto's widower.

Mr Gilani swore allegiance to Mrs Bhutto, assassinated in a gun and bomb attack on December 27, and said he would carry forward her mission.

"Whatever democracy we have in the country, no matter in which shape it is, it's because of the martyrdom of Benazir Bhutto," he told reporters after filing his nomination for the post. "We will endeavour for the supremacy of the Parliament."

Mr Gilani is expected to win with a thumping majority when the National Assembly votes today, particularly after a regional pro-Musharraf party pledged its support. Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, a senior leader of Mr Musharraf's main allied party, yesterday said he would challenge Mr Gilani in the vote.

Tomorrow, if everything goes smoothly, President Musharraf will swear in Mr Gilani, whom he jailed in 2001 on charges of making illegal appointments. He was freed in 2006.

US ally Mr Musharraf, who came to power as a general following a coup in 1999, is politically isolated since the defeat of his allies in a parliamentary election on February 18, and there is intense speculation that he will soon be forced out.

"Whichever new government is formed, it will enjoy my full support," Mr Musharraf said in a televised speech while addressing an annual military parade at a sports stadium in Islamabad.

Dressed in a white sherwani, a traditional South Asian frock coat, Mr Musharraf attended the ceremony for the first time as a civilian to commemorate the day Muslim agitators in the Indian independence movement passed a resolution in 1940 to work for the formation of Pakistan.