Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf swore in new Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani 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, PPP chairman and Bhutto’s husband 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 sceremony shouted as Gillani completed his oath.

Musharraf and Gillani 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, who has called for Musharraf to resign, was meeting US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte and Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher as Gilani was sworn in. The two US officials, who arrived in Pakistan earlier in the day, were also expected to meet Gillani and Musharraf, Pakistani media said.

The United States and other Western allies fear more instability in their nuclear-armed ally, which is already facing a campaign of attacks by al Qaeda-inspired militants, if there is confrontation between the president and the new Government.

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