ISLAMABAD — Raja Pervez Ashraf was Friday elected Pakistan's new prime minister after the Supreme Court dismissed Yusuf Raza Gilani for contempt, the speaker of National Assembly announced. Ashraf secured the premiership with 211 votes cast in his favor in the 342-member National Assembly, where the main Pakistan People's Party leads a majority coalition, Speaker Fehmida Mirza announced. The choice of former government power and water chief Ashraf seemed to guarantee continued political turmoil: Ashraf, the energy minister from 2008 to 2011, is associated with a persistent energy crisis that has crippled the country with blackouts, water shortages and steep increases in the price of fuel. Ashraf also was mired in a corruption scandal involving private leases of energy production plants. President Asif Ali Zardari, who heads the PPP, turned to Ashraf after the leading candidate for the job Makhdoom Shahabuddin withdrew Thursday amid allegations of drug trafficking. But even with the leadership vacuum filled, the nation is expected to remain beset by a power struggle among its major institutions — the courts, the military and the civilian leadership — that threatens to keep Pakistan in tumult for months to come. The ruling party also called for parliamentary elections to be held before year-end, rather than in March 2013 as scheduled. — Agencies
