Sunday, March 23, 2008
Musharraf said he plans to remain president until his term expires.
Washington Post
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan’s leading political party announced its pick for prime minister Saturday, setting the stage for a final transfer of political power to end nearly nine years of military rule under the government of President Pervez Musharraf.
The Pakistan People’s Party tapped Yousuf Raza Gillani, an ardent party loyalist and close associate of slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, as its nominee.
Gillani, 53, who served under Bhutto for three years in the 1990s as speaker of the country’s National Assembly , will face off in a largely symbolic vote Monday against a still unnominated member of Musharraf’s Pakistan Muslim League-Q for the country’s top governmental post.
Musharraf has said he intends to remain as president for the almost five years left on his term. But under the Pakistani system, his powers will be drastically reduced because his party no longer controls parliament.
A brief written statement by Bhutto’s widower and party co-chairman, Asif Ali Zardari, said the party had “reached consensus” on Gillani’s nomination and expressed confidence in his ability to head Pakistan’s new government.
The much anticipated announcement comes a little more than a month after the Pakistan People’s Party won the largest number of seats in national parliamentary elections.
The decision to support Gillani for the post was the result of weeks of internal political wrangling in the party that effectively ended a bid by the party’s president, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, for the prime minister’s seat.
Fahim was opposed by many people both inside his party and by the Pakistan Muslim League faction of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, the Pakistan People’s Party chief coalition partner in parliament.
Yet he insisted as late as Saturday afternoon that he remained in the running for prime minister. The dispute exposed a potential internal rift within Pakistan’s leading political party.