Chawdhary Shujaat Hussain, the chief of the ruling military-backed PML-Q party, was on Tuesday elected as Pakistan's new Prime Minister, the second person to hold the top post under President Pervez Musharraf following Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali's resignation.
Shujaat, 58, defeated his lone opposition rival Mukhdhum Amin Fahim by a margin of 114 votes in the election held in the 342-member National Assembly.
Musharraf-loyalist Shujaat, a two-time former minister, obtained 190 votes against 76 votes of Fahim, a leader of 14-party Alliance for Restoration of Democracy who belongs to former premier Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP), Speaker of the House, Amir Hussain, said.
Shujaat will be sworn-in by Musharraf tomorrow, outgoing Prime Minister Jamali, also from PML-Q, said.
Islamic alliance Muttahida Majlis-e Amal (MMA), which has 68 seats in the House, stayed away from voting.
Shujaat, who succeeds Jamali who resigned on Saturday following differences with Musharraf, is likely to remain in office for some weeks until international-banker turned finance Minister Shaukat Aziz assumes the post after getting elected for the National Assembly, as per the constitutional requirement.
After his election, Shujaat told lawmakers: "I will continue the policies of President Musharraf."
He said fighting terrorism, improving law and order situation and eliminating poverty and illiteracy would be his priorities.
Shujaat, who after his election has also become the leader of the National Assembly, said he had not sought the prime minister's post. "I want to make it clear that I never aspired for this office. I swear upon God I never lobbied for the post of prime minister," he said in his acceptance speech.
"I know the prime ministership is a sacred national trust. I will do my best to defend this trust."
"We have to face two fronts -- first to defend the religion and Islamic values and second to (practice) good governance," Shujaat said.
After his election, Shujaat was greeted by Jamali and Fahim among others.
His election as prime minister is not expected to change much of the composition of the outgoing government as he has already made it clear that he would retain most of the ministers and ministries with minor changes.
Foreign Minister Khurshid M Kasuri and Aziz were expected to retain their portfolios of Foreign Affairs and Finance.
Shujaat, considered to be a clever politician, hails from the powerful Punjab province where his younger brother Pervez Elahi is currently chief minister.
He previously worked as Information Minister in the erstwhile Junejo Cabinet and later as Interior Minister in the ousted Nawaz Sharief government. He fell foul with Sharief and resigned. Shujaat supported Musharraf after the 1999 military coup and emerged as one of the general's close confidants.
His election, telecast live by state-run television, was unlike the election of the leader of the House in the past as the contestants, specially Fahim, had not been permitted to speak before the poll.
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