The victory of Gillani (55), chosen by PPP to head the incoming coalition government, was a foregone conclusion as the former national assembly speaker won by a huge majority trouncing his lone opponent Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, a senior member of opposition PML(Q), by 264 to 42 votes in the 342-seat National Assembly.
The supporters of the slain former premier Benazir Bhutto’s party shouted “Long Live Bhutto” and “Go, Musharraf, Go” as the result was announced.
Bhutto’s teenage son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who watched the proceedings from the public gallery, was seen wiping his tears and then shook hands with Gillani. “It is because of the martyrdom of Benazir Bhutto that democracy is being restored. It is a historic event,” Gilani told the assembly shortly after the announcement.
Musharraf will swear in the next prime minister at a ceremony to be held at 11 am on Tuesday at the Aiwan-e-Sadr or presidency.
Sealing rifts
Ahead of getting the Parliamentary vote, Gillani met PPP vice chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim in an apparent effort to end the rift created after the latter was sidelined in the race for the top post.
Gillani said the policies and programmes for the first 100 days of the new government will be announced after he obtains a vote of confidence from the House.
There is speculation that Gillani will be a stop-gap premier until Bhutto’s widower Asif Ali Zardari, who is not an MP, becomes eligible to stand for the post by contesting a by-election in May.
But local daily The News quoted Asif Ali Zardari as denying this.
Sharif to boycott
PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif will boycott the swearing-in ceremony of Pakistan’s new prime minister on Tuesday to protest against Pervez Musharraf’s presence, whom he has called “an illegal and unconstitutional” President. Sharif has asked President Pervez Musharraf to transfer power to the newly-elected parliament and step down gracefully.
Meanwhile, Amin Fahim on Monday resigned from the presidentship of the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD).
In a letter addressed to acting secretary general of the ARD, Abdul Qadeer Khamosh, he wrote he was resigning from the leadership of the alliance because it had achieved its goal of restoration of democracy in the country.