& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Musharraf swears in Pak cabinet full of foes

AP, AFP, Islamabad
President Pervez Musharraf yesterday swore in a new Pakistani Cabinet made up of political opponents who have pledged to reduce the US-backed leader's once-sweepingpowers.
Twenty-four ministers took Qie oath from Musharraf during a low-key ceremony in the capital that was snubbed by leaders of the country's new ruling parties.
The cabinet includes 11 ministers from the PPP and nine from the PML-N, two from the ethnic Pashtun Awami National Party, one from the hardline Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam and one member from the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
The cabinet includes two women, one each from the PPP and PML-N.
"Thank you and congratulations," a stony faced Musharraf said after the ministers followed him in repeating the oath of allegiance.
Musharraf, a key ally in the US "war on terror", sat grim-faced alongside new prime minister and key Bhutto aide Yousui Raza Gilani for the ceremony at the presidential palace in Islamabad.
Members of Sharif s party wore black bands around their upper arms to show their defiance of Musharraf, who ousted Sharif and his elected government in a military coup in 1999, state television showed.
Several of the new ministers served jail terms under his regime, PML-N spokesman Siddiqui Farooq said.
Gilani himself spent five years in prison under Musharrafs rule
The ceremony came a week after Gilani was elected as prime minister following the February 18 elections in which Musharrafs political allies were routed
No party head attended the swearing-in, a government official said. Coalition leaders boycotted last week’s swearing-in of Gilani by Musharraf.
Last Tuesday, Musharraf swore in Yousaf Raza Gilani, a loyalist of slain ex- leader Benazir Bhutto.
The incoming four-party coalition needed another week to finalise its initial Cabinet lineup and is expected to add dozens more names in the coming weeks.
Among the key figures .sworn in on Tuesday, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, a Cambridge University educated aristocrat, becomes foreign minister; another Bhutto loyalist, Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar will be defense minister; and Ishaq Dar, an ally of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, will be finance minister.
Ishaq Dar, the incoming finance minister, said the economic policies of the previous pro-Musharraf government would have to be reversed.
"They are handing over the economy in mutilated shape," Dar, who is from Sharifs party, told reporters on Sunday.
The World Bank last week warned that Pakistan faces an economic crisis unless it takes urgent action, especially to address rising prices of foodstuffs, fuel and commodities.
Musharraf said late Sunday that he would cooperate with the new government to help the country, which is in the grip of a wave of Islamic militant violence in addition to its economic strife.
"I would like to extend my cooperation to the government., with only one single-minded objective in mind — the progress and development of the country and welfare and well-being of its people”, the staterun Associated Press of Pakistan quoted Musharraf as saying.
The incoming coalition plans, to change the constitution to remove Musharrafs power to dissolve parliament and fire the government. It has also promised to reinstate judges removed by Musharraf in November to halt legal challenges to his re-election as president the previous month.