Musharraf names Soomro as new Prime Minister

Islamabad: Pakistan Senate Chairman Mohammad Mian Soomro was named the country's caretaker prime minister, officials said yesterday.

President Pervez Musharraf is set to swear in the leader of the interim administration today, after the country's parliament dissolves at one minute to midnight ahead of elections promised in January.

Soomro "was number one on the president's list to be the caretaker prime minister," a presidential aide said on condition of anonymity. The 57-year-old is a member of Musharraf's ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q party. He was appointed governor of Sindh province in May 2000 and elected as a senator in February 2003, becoming senate chairman the following month. "Soomro was the front-runner and he was always likely to be the caretaker prime minister," Railways Minister Shaikh Rashid said.

The opposition however did not expect the situation to improve under a caretaker administration.

"We don't expect fair and free elections under General Musharraf and his mini-martial law," said a spokesman for opposition leader Benazir Bhutto's party. A US diplomat visited Bhutto in Lahore where she has been under house arrest since Tuesday. "I conveyed to the former prime minister the continuing US government concerns about the state of emergency," said the diplomat, Brian Hunt.