Pakistan parliament elects woman speaker

Pakistan’s new parliament elected the country’s first female speaker from the party of assassinated opposition leader Benazir Bhutto today.

Fehmida Mirza, who has vowed to run parliament “like a home,” got straight down to business inviting Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, the new opposition leader, to speak first.

Mr Elahi, whose party is President Pervez Musharraf’s main political prop, pledged his “full cooperation” in the assembly.

However, he appeared to urge the incoming government to drop plans to strip Mr Musharraf of some of his remaining powers, which include the right to fire parliament and the government.

“I hope that everyone has learned a lot and the clash of institutions to grab more powers will be avoided, and that institutions of state will continue to function within the sphere of their authority and move ahead,” he said.