The New Nation - Internet Edition

Reuters, Islamabad

New Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani ordered on Monday the immediate release of all judges detained by President Pervez Musharraf after he imposed emergency rule in November.

"I order the immediate release of detained judges of the superior judiciary," Gilani told the National Assembly, shortly after it overwhelmingly voted for him to become prime minister.

Gilani, a top member of the party of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, also appealed to judges to resolve disputes through parliament, not through protests.

Earlier Pakistan's National Assembly elected as prime minister on Monday Yousaf Raza Gilani, a top official in assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's party, five weeks after it won a general election.

In an immediate challenge to President Pervez Musharraf, Gilani said he would order the immediate release of judges Musharraf detained after he declared emergency rule in November.

He also called on parliament to pass a resolution seeking a U.N. investigation into Bhutto's assassination on December 27 in a gun and bomb attack blamed on Islamist militants.

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

The announcement triggered cheers and shouts of "Long Live Bhutto" from supporters in the visitors' gallery. Bhutto's son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, was also in the gallery and was seen wiping away a tear.

Bhutto party supporters also chanted "go Musharraf, go."

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

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 Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and its coalition partners, including the party of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif which came second in the February 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.

But party officials rejected such speculation, saying Gilani would be prime minister for a full five-year term.

Musharraf is due to swear in Gilani on Tuesday. He is expected to begin naming ministers to his cabinet this week.

Musharraf has been politically isolated since the defeat of his allies in the election and there is speculation that his old foes forming a government will try to force him from power.

Gilani, a soft-spoken, resolute person, was jailed in 2001 by the Musharraf government for making illegal appointments, but was freed in 2006. He said the charge was politically motivated.

While in prison, Gilani wrote a book that advocated a strong military, but one removed from politics. He has called for the repeal of constitutional changes made by Musharraf to bolster his authority, including the power to dismiss a government.

The PPP-led coalition almost has the two-thirds majority in the two-chamber parliament needed to amend the constitution.

Gilani said his government would strengthen parliament.

"If you have to run the government, then you have to ensure the supremacy of parliament, the rule of law and the constitution," he said.

He held out an olive branch to the opposition, saying they would be respected, but his order for the release of the judges, though expected, set a tone of confrontation with Musharraf.

Minutes later, authorities removed all barricades from outside the house of former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and other judges held under house arrest in Islamabad. Supporters were later seen entering Chaudhry's house.

The incoming coalition partners have pledged to pass a resolution to reinstate the judges Musharraf dismissed out of fear they would rule unconstitutional his own re-election in October by the previous assembly.

If reinstated, the judges are expected to take up legal challenges to the president.

The United States and other Western allies fear political instability in their nuclear-armed ally, which is already facing a campaign of attacks by al Qaeda-inspired militants, if there is confrontation between the president and the new government.

Gilani also asked the assembly to pass a resolution condemning the "judicial murder" of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Benazir's father and Pakistan's first popularly elected prime minister.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was toppled by the military in 1977 and hanged two years later after a controversial court ruling in which he was found him guilty of murder.