Islamabad, Nov 21: As expected, Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, a loyalist of President Pervez Musharraf, was today elected the new prime minister of Pakistan in a parliamentary vote. The election held amid stormy debate over Musharraf`s presidency and constitutional amendments, Jamali, sponsored by the pro-military alliance got 172 votes defeating Maulana Fazlur Rehman of the Islamic religious party alliance Muthahida Majlis Amal (MMA) and candidate of the Pakistan People`s Party (PPP) Shah Mahmud Qureshi.
Pro-Taliban candidate Fazlur Rehman secured 86 votes while Qureshi got 70 votes in an election held with speaker Amir Hussain pressing for a division. In all 328 members voted and one abstained.

The election of Jalali, who will be the 19th Prime Minister, was a forgone conclusion as his group MMA had bagged the post of Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly in elections held on Tuesday.
In Thursday`s elections the members voted their choice by indicating their preference to the Assembly officials.

The election process was televised live. Those who voted for Jamali included 10 members who have broken away from the PPP. They were seen being pursued in the last minute by their party colleagues to vote for Qureshi.
Most of the smaller parties and independents, except cricketer-turned-politician, Imran Khan voted for Jamali. Imran along with 19 members of the PML-N, headed by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif voted for MMA candidate Rehman.
Bureau Report