Installation of new Pakistani Cabinet raises heat on Musharraf

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Pakistan's deposed chief justice revved up his campaign to win back his old job Monday as Cabinet ministers, some wearing black armbands, took their oath of office under protest from President Pervez Musharraf. Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry's return to the political spotlight and the pledge of the new government to restore judges fired by Musharraf crank up the pressure on the U.S.-backed leader to quit after eight years of sweeping power. In a move that could ease Western concern that Pakistan will ease up on Islamic militancy, the winners of last month's elections installed a British-educated loyalist of assassinated ex-leader Benazir Bhutto as foreign minister. Musharraf dismissed Chaudhry and about 60 other senior judges during a burst of emergency rule in November to halt legal challenges to his re-election as president the previous month. But new Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani last week ordered the release of a man who has become a symbol of resistance to the former army strongman's increasingly strong-armed rule.