Pakistan swears in Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- A supporter of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf was sworn in Saturday as head of a new civilian government that was seen as sympathetic to Pakistan's support for the United States in the war on terrorism.

Zafarullah Khan Jamali's election may ease concerns in the West about the rise of Pakistan's ultraconservative religious parties, who came in a surprising third in Oct. 10 elections and called for greater distance from the United States.

Jamali's team will be the first elected civilian government to oversee the day-to-day running of the country since Musharraf took control in a 1999 coup.

Jamali, from the Pakistan Muslim League party, has promised to continue the military ruler's policies, especially his strong support for U.S. efforts to hunt al-Qaida.

His greatest challenge will be satisfying the demands of Pakistan's extremely powerful pro-U.S. military, while appeasing the resurgent religious parties and their supporters in the Pakistani street, where many are angry at their government's support for the United States.

"The opposition will not allow him to blindly follow and continue Musharraf's policies," said Malik Meraj Khalid, a former caretaker prime minister and senior political commentator. Khalid said the opposition, especially the religious parties, would be a formidable foe.

"Jamali will have to satisfy a majority of the parliament to remain in power," Khalid said, adding that it will not be easy. "By becoming prime minister, he has selected a crown of thorns for himself."

Jamali's first test will come within two months. Under Pakistani law, he must win a vote of confidence in the National Assembly within 60 days.

Shaukat Aziz, the much-respected finance minister under Musharraf, was sworn in as a special adviser to Jamali, an indication that economic policy will be unchanged. Mian Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri, the new foreign minister, is a liberal with a long history of close ties to the United States.

Faisal Salleh Hayyat, a dissident leader of former prime minister Benezir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party, was named interior minister as a reward for breaking ranks with Bhutto's party and voting for Jamali over the party's own prime ministerial candidate. Several other ministers were also drawn from the ranks of Pakistan People's Party deserters.

"The team is good ... they are competent and have ability to discharge their duties," Musharraf said of the new Cabinet.

Jamali won the prime minister post on Thursday with 172 votes -- just more than half -- in the 342-member National Assembly. But that was well ahead of the 86 votes of his nearest rival, Fazl-ur Rahman, an Islamist leader who openly supported the Taliban and has said he wants to curb Pakistan's alliance with America. A third candidate, from Bhutto's party, received 70 votes.