Bhutto’s Party Selects New Prime Minister

By McClatchy Newspapers

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan’s dominant opposition party on Saturday announced that Yousuf Raza Gilani, a soft-spoken consensus- builder, will be the next prime minister.

Pakistan’s People’s Party, formerly led by Benazir Bhutto, who was slain in December, chose Gilani after an agonizing internal struggle. The party won the biggest bloc of seats in parliament in Feb. 18 elections, but not enough to form a government. It is organizing a coalition government with the party of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, which finished second.

Parliament is to vote Monday on the new prime minister, who will take over command of the government from U.S.-backed President Pervez Musharraf.

Gilani was chosen by party chairman Asif Zardari, Bhutto’s widower. It is expected Zardari will be the real power behind the throne, and many suspect he will become prime minister himself in time, though first he must win a seat in parliament.

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