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Pakistani PM orders judges freed

Pakistan's new prime minister yesterday ordered the release of judges detained by President Pervez Musharraf, triggering a showdown with Musharraf just minutes after being elected.

Yousuf Raza Gilani, a key aide to assassinated opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, immediately promised to free the judges that Musharraf ordered held last November amid fears they might challenge his grip on power.

Legislators cheered as the 55-year-old Gilani, who spent five years in prison under Musharraf's regime, was elected overwhelmingly by the lower house of parliament -- where an anti-Musharraf coalition now holds a majority.

"Today, democracy has been restored thanks to the great sacrifice of Benazir Bhutto," Gilani, wearing a dark suit and tie, said in his first speech to parliament.

"I invite all political forces to join us because the country is facing such a crisis that a single man cannot save it," Gilani said to chants of "Go Musharraf, Go!" and "Long Live Bhutto!"

He quickly established that he was ready to take on the president, who is due to swear him into office today. Gilani said the judges detained and turfed out of office by Musharraf would go free.

Musharraf deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and dozens of other judges under a state of emergency in November, when it appeared the Supreme Court might overturn his October re-election as president.

"I order all the detained judges to be released immediately," Gilani said, referring to Chaudhry and several other judges who remain under house arrest after more than four months.

Police with forklift trucks began removing barbed wire and concrete barricades outside the Islamabad neighborhood where the judges were being held.

An aide to Chaudhry said he was grateful to Gilani and would leave his house today. The judge's son appeared on the balcony of the house where he too has been held since November.

Gilani was in prison for half a decade on corruption charges, which he said were cooked up by the regime to discredit him. His spell in prison won him respect within the ranks of Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP).

He got 264 votes in the 342-seat chamber, while the pro-Musharraf candidate secured 42 votes. There were several abstentions.
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