Pakistani parliament elects Gilani prime minister

By Kamran Haider

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A loyalist of assassinated Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was elected prime minister on Monday and he immediately ordered the release of judges President Pervez Musharraf detained in November.

The National Assembly elected Yousaf Raza Gilani prime minister five weeks after Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and its allies dealt the main party that backs Musharraf a stunning election defeat.

In a challenge to the increasingly isolated Musharraf, Gilani ordered the immediate release of judges detained after the president declared emergency rule and he also called for a U.N. investigation into Bhutto's assassination on Dec. 27.

Gilani won with 264 votes in the 342-seat lower house of parliament. The only other contender, Chaudhry Pervez Elahi of the Pakistan Muslim League that backs Musharraf, got 42 votes.

The announcement of the result triggered cheers and shouts of "long live Bhutto" and "go Musharraf, go" from supporters in the parliament's visitors' gallery. Bhutto's son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, was also in the gallery and was seen wiping away a tear.

"It is because of the martyrdom of Benazir Bhutto that democracy is being restored. It is a historic event," Gilani told the assembly.

Gilani, a vice chairman of Bhutto's party and a former National Assembly speaker, had been expected to win easily with the backing of his PPP and its coalition partners, including the party of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif which came second in the Feb. 18 polls.

There had been speculation the PPP would nominate a stop-gap prime minister and Bhutto's widower, Asif Ali Zardari, who now leads the party, would take over the post after entering parliament via a by-election.