Musharraf swears in new Pak PM Gillani

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.

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.

Husain Haqqani, a professor at Boston University and a senior adviser to Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party, said he believed the US officials wanted to show support for the democratic process and discuss the US-led campaign against terrorism.

Members of the new coalition have spoken of the need to open talks with the militants responsible for a wave of suicide attacks, raising questions about Pakistan’s strategy in the US-led campaign against terrorism.

Musharraf’s support for the US campaign has been deeply unpopular with many Pakistanis who have criticised the president for, as they see it, doing the bidding of the United States and provoking militant violence. “Things will have to change, they’ll have to be done with greater transparency because of the new democratic dispensation,” Haqqani said.