Islamabad: Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf swore in new Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Tuesday, a day after parliament elected the top official from assassinated opposition leader Benazir Bhutto's party.
In an apparent snub to the increasingly isolated Musharraf, Bhutto's widower, 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 ceremony shouted as Gilani completed his oath. Musharraf and Gilani shook hands at the end of the ceremony. State television said Zardari and his son, who has returned to Pakistan for a visit from Britain where he is studying, had been invited to the ceremony that was broadcast live on television.
Musharraf's popularity has eroded over the last year and his political allies were soundly beaten in Feb. 18 parliamentary 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.
Sharif, the prime minister then army chief Musharraf ousted in a 1990 coup, is joining a coalition led by Bhutto's party with at least two smaller parties. Sharif, who has repeatedly called for Musharraf to resign, was meeting US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte and Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher as Gilani was being sworn in.
The two US officials, who arrived in Pakistan earlier in the day, were also expected to meet Gilani and Musharraf, Pakistani media said.
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