Pakistani parliament elects first female speaker

Legislators elected Pakistan's first female speaker of parliament Wednesday. She is Fehmida Mirza, a businesswoman and physician, and a member of the Pakistan People's Party of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

Mirza's elevation is a reflection of the air of liberalism blowing through the country's politics since voters delivered a resounding defeat to backers of President Pervez Musharraf, the former general who has been a close U.S. ally.

However, many Pakistanis are warily watching the victorious elitist parties, worried over whether politicians whose civilian governments in the 1990s were tainted by corruption and ineptitude will be able to deal with Islamic militants and economic hardships.

In a first sign of trouble, the new leaders are struggling to agree on who should be prime minister. There was less of a problem in picking the speaker.

Mirza, elected to parliament three times, won 249 of the 324 votes cast in the National Assembly, parliament's lower house. Israr Tareen, a coal-mining magnate and Musharraf supporter, got only 70. Five ballots were invalid.

"Being a woman, it gives me immense pride and happiness to see you on that chair," Saima Akhtar Bharwana, a legislator from Bhutto's Pakistan People's party, said after Mirza was sworn in.

Sympathy over Bhutto's killing on Dec. 27 helped carry her party to first place in the February 18 parliament elections. Her party is preparing to lead a new coalition government united against Musharraf after eight years of his military rule.

The achievement of Mirza, 51, is modest compared to that of Bhutto, who was the first woman to head the government of a Muslim-majority country in the modern age.

Tariq Azim, a senator for Musharraf's defeated party, said Mirza's selection would improve Pakistan's image, long tainted by reports of widespread rights abuses against women.

"The house will be more disciplined and better managed, as you know there is more respect for a woman in our country," Azim said.

As Mizra's victory was announced, members from both political camps slapped their desks loudly by way of applause. She stood, smiled modestly and repeatedly touched her forehead in a gesture of thanks. She then donned the black robe of office and took the oath from the outgoing speaker.

Mirza, who has promised to run parliament "like a home," got straight to business, inviting Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, the new opposition leader, to speak first.

Bhutto's party, now led by her widower, Asif Ali Zardari, must first decide who should be the prime minister. After his wife's assassination, Zardari told reporters she wanted Makhdoom Amin Fahim, an aristocratic party stalwart, to be the party's candidate.

But there is speculation Zardari wants the job himself. He is ineligible now because he is not a member of parliament, but he could name a stand-in and run in a byelection within months.

The battle for the leadership has strained party unity, and in an apparent effort to smooth over the row, the son of Bhutto and Zardari, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, flew into Pakistan on Wednesday.

The party appointed him as chairman after his mother died, but his father is running things while the 19-year-old continues his studies at Oxford University. While Bilawal has little or no say in politics, it could be difficult for party loyalists to publicly criticize a declaration on the leadership made by Bhutto's anointed heir.

The People's party said Bilawal was visiting his mother's grave Wednesday and would announce the party's nomination for prime minister "at the right time."