Date:20/03/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/03/20/stories/2008032059381400.htm

International

Fahmida Mirza elected Speaker

Nirupama Subramanian

Bilawal arrives, to announce candidate for Prime Minister

— PHOTO: AFP

MAKING HISTORY: Fahmida Mirza, newly-elected Speaker of Pakistan’s National Assembly, takes the oath from outgoing Speaker Amir Hussain in Islamabad on Wednesday.

ISLAMABAD: Fahmida Mirza of the Pakistan People’s Party was elected the Speaker of the National Assembly on Wednesday by more than two-thirds of the House.

The Assembly was prorogued after the election of the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker, and will meet again for the election of the Prime Minister. It is expected that President Pervez Musharraf will convene the Assembly early next week for this purpose.

Yousuf Raza Geelani, a PPP stalwart from Multan in southern Punjab, has again emerged as the front-runner for the premiership.

In a surprise development, PPP chairman Bilawal Zardari Bhutto arrived in Pakistan on Wednesday from the U.K., where he is a student at Oxford.

Farzana Raja, a PPP spokeswoman, told journalists that he would announce the name of the party’s prime ministerial candidate on the day of the election.

Mr. Bilawal headed straightaway to his mother Benazir’s grave at Garhi Khuda Baksh in Sindh, and is expected here on Thursday.

The PPP apparently believes that after a bruising battle for the premiership within the party, the announcement of the name by Benazir’s son may be more acceptable to all sections of the party.

His sudden arrival has certainly added more drama to the guessing game about the Prime Minister.

In an indication that party vice-chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim still hopes to come in from the cold for the premiership stakes, his speech in the Assembly congratulating Dr. Mirza on her election also made reference to party co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari as “a friend of friends” who “keeps every promise he makes.”

Dr. Mirza, the first woman Speaker in Pakistan’s history, won 249 votes from the 325 members of the National Assembly present and voting. She was sworn in by the outgoing Speaker, Chaudhary Amir Hussain.

Her opponent Mohammed Israr Tareen, who had been nominated by the Pakistan Muslim League (Q) and its allies, received just 70 votes.

Dr. Mirza’s running mate for Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi, was elected with 246 votes, while his opponent Khushbakt Shujaat of the MQM, which is allied to the PML (Q), received 68 votes.