Pakistan's newly elected PM takes oath of office

ISLAMABAD, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan's newly-elected Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani took oath of office at the President's House here on Tuesday.

The oath-taking was administered by President Pervez Musharraf and attended by the National Assembly Speaker Fehmida Mirza, some political parties leaders and senior military officers.

The participants applauded when Gillani took oath. Gillani and Musharraf shook hands at the end of the brief ceremony.

Top leaders of the ruling coalition including chief of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Nawaz Sharif and Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari did not show up at the ceremony.

After the oath-taking, Musharraf and Gillani shifted to another hall in the President's House where they would hold a meeting, local media reported.

Gillani was elected as the new Prime Minister of Pakistan, bagging 264 votes in the 342-member National Assembly.

The PML-N central leader Javed Hashmi Monday said that no parliamentarians from PML-N would participate in Gillani's oath-taking ceremony and they had informed PPP about their decision.

Gillani gave his first order that the deposed judges who had been under house arrest since an emergency was imposed in November last year be released.

Gillani was born of a politician family in the eastern Punjab province in 1952. He served as the Speaker of the National Assembly during the second tenure of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. He was arrested and put into prison in 2001 on charges of power abuse and released four years later.

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