Pakistan's new PM takes oath amid opposition
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-06-30 15:51

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf swore in one of his key loyalists as new caretaker prime minister ahead of ex-banker Shaukat Aziz' ascendancy to the top post.

Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain was sworn in Wednesday, a day after a rubber-stamp vote by parliament, to fill a gap of some two months until Aziz, the former finance minister credited with salvaging Pakistan's economy, can make the transition from the senate to the national assembly.

Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain waves after submitting his nomination paper to be prime minister of Pakistan. [AFP]

The top slot under Musharraf became vacant suddenly on Saturday when Zafarullah Jamali quit without explanation after months of rumours that Musharraf was fed up with his lacklustre performance.

The machinations have been slammed by critics as the behind-the-scenes work of the military and Musharraf, who is also army chief, and a gross aberration of democracy.

Opposition politicians speaking after Tuesday's vote questioned why Jamali suddenly resigned when there was no crisis or emergency.

Shujaat, who turns 59 next month, is a wealthy industrialist and veteran politician who served as minister under military dictator General Zia ul Haq and the prime minister deposed by Musharraf in a 1999 coup, Nawaz Sharif.

He led a breakaway faction of Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League party, seen as largely a creation of the military to provide Musharraf with political and parliamentary backing.

Shujaat played a king-making role after the October 2002 elections, held to restore the parliament suspended by Musharraf after his coup three years earlier.

Shujaat has been plagued by allegations of corruption from opposition parties since the 2002 election campaign. He denies the charges.

The opposition Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (Movement for Justice) allege he had defaulted on loans worth more than half a million dollars from government banks.

"He got a 37.9 million rupee (655,000 dollar) bank loan written off for his industrial unit where he is a director," PPP secretary general Raja Pervez Ashraf told AFP.

"He is a bank defaulter and a bank defaulter is ineligible for the post of prime ministership."

The PTI, headed by former cricket hero Imran Khan, lodged a petition in 2002 with the Lahore high court accusing of him defaulting.

"The case is pending at the Lahore high court since before the October 2002 election," PTI spokesman Akbar S Babar told AFP.

Shujaat entered the federal parliament in 1985 and served as information minister under former military dictator General Ziaul Haq and interior minister under the prime minister deposed by Musharraf in his 1999 coup, Nawaz Sharif.

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