Musharraf ally confirmed as Pakistani PM

Pakistan’s former Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz, a close ally of President General Pervez Musharraf, was sworn in as prime minister today, a day after parliament elected him as premier despite an opposition boycott of the vote.

Standing alongside Musharraf at the presidential palace in Islamabad, Aziz took the oath of office in front of senior government and military officials and judges.

He was due to face a vote of confidence in parliament later today, seen as a formality.

Aziz, aged 55, is a smooth-talking banker who worked for 30 years as a Citibank executive before becoming finance minister when Musharraf took power in a bloodless coup in 1999.

Suave, articulate and media-savvy, Aziz is credited with reforming an economy that was crippled by international sanctions imposed after Pakistan tested nuclear weapons in 1998.

The change in prime ministers is not expected to affect key policies such as Pakistan’s support of the US-led war on terrorism or the peace process with rival India, which are firmly in Musharraf’s hands.

Still, opposition groups have criticised the political manoeuvring to get Aziz elected as an affront to democracy and proof that Musharraf is the dominant force in politics despite the re-institution of parliamentary after elections in 2002.

Aziz was expected to keep the finance portfolio, and Khursheed Kasuri was likely to stay on as the foreign minister in the new Cabinet, likely to be announced on Tuesday or Wednesday, a senior government official said on condition of anonymity.

Aziz comfortably won yesterday’s election in the 342-seat National Assembly, or lower house, with 191 votes.

The opposition abstained from voting after the house speaker rejected a request for their candidate, jailed opposition leader Javed Hashmi, to be temporarily freed from prison to attend the election.

Aziz replaces caretaker Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, who stepped down this week after only two months in the post.