Pakistan’s ruling party names new premier nominee

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s ruling party named a loyalist tainted both by corruption allegations and failure to end the country’s energy crisis as its candidate for prime minister, setting up what is likely to be a short and turbulent premiership.

The announcement of Raja Pervaiz Ashraf as premier-designate came during a high-stakes struggle for power among the Supreme Court, the government and the military. The turmoil is destabilizing the nuclear-armed country, which is considered crucial to the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.

The crisis was triggered earlier this week when the court disqualified former Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani for refusing to initiate a corruption investigation against the president. Judges are likely to make the same demand of Ashraf, and many are predicting he will quickly meet the same fate as Gilani.

Ashraf, who was the minister for information technology in the recently ousted government, was originally put forward as a backup candidate but got the nod after the first choice was hit with an arrest warrant following his nomination on Thursday. The warrant was issued by an anti-narcotics force linked to the military.

The parliament is scheduled to vote on Ashraf’s candidacy Friday evening. The ruling coalition has a majority, so Ashraf is likely to be approved. The Pakistan People’s Party is the largest party in the coalition.

Gilani’s disqualification on Tuesday was the climax of more than two years of legal maneuvering against the premier by the court.

A senior PPP member, Khursheed Shah, said at a news conference Friday that the party decided on Ashraf after consultations with its coalition partners. “Raja Pervaiz Ashraf is our final nominee,” he said.

During the news conference, the PPP announced new elections.

Opposition members had been calling for elections to be held immediately, but the ruling party, fearing it would not do well, was reluctant to call the vote. Shah did not give a date for the elections, but the earliest they could likely be held is late in the fall.

“This year will be the year of new elections, and we are going for the elections,” he said. Elections were originally going to be held early next year.

The corruption case against President Asif Ali Zardari was initially heard by Swiss legal authorities and dates back to allegations that Zardari laundered state money there in the 1990s.

There’s little chance that the Swiss would reopen the case after all these years, calling into question the reasons behind the Pakistan court’s insistence on the issue. Critics say the court is taking on too overt a political, threatening the democratic process in a country where elected governments have been toppled by army coups often sanctioned by the court.

The court’s supporters say activist judges are needed to keep a check on rampant corruption and misuse of power by the government. They point out the court has also been carrying out investigations into human rights abuses by the military.

Ashraf was head of the water and power ministry for three years, an unpopular position in a country where daily blackouts in the summer can be as long as 22 hours.

He has been accused of corruption relating to power projects. Ashraf oversaw the import of short-term power stations, or “rental power” projects that cost the government millions of dollars but produced little energy. The policy earned him the nickname “Raja Rental” in the Pakistani media. He denies any wrongdoing.

He was also ridiculed by the Pakistani public for often claiming that the power crisis would be over soon, only to have conditions get worse and worse.

The PPP likely sees Ashraf as a sacrificial lamb, said some analysts.

“He is a cynical choice by the PPP. Whoever takes over as prime minister will be in for a very short time,” said Raza Rumi, director of the Islamabad-based Jinnah Institute. “Obviously the PPP will not choose its best for this stint. They will choose people who can be dispensed with.”

When Shah was asked about the corruption allegations against the new candidate, he said allegations are leveled against many people, but no charges have ever been proven against Ashraf.

The political jockeying for power likely means Pakistan’s more weighty problems will fall off the agenda until a new government is established. The country’s economy is in shambles. The military is fighting a violent insurgency in the tribal areas near the border with Afghanistan. In many parts of the country, residents receive only a few hours of electricity a day, setting off riots earlier this week.

Pakistan and U.S. relations are also at an all-time low. The U.S. accuses Pakistan of not going after insurgent groups operating in its tribal areas while Pakistan says the U.S. doesn’t give it credit for the losses it has suffered fighting al-Qaida and other militants.

Pakistan closed U.S. and NATO supply routes going through Pakistan into Afghanistan after American forces accidentally killed 24 Pakistani troops on the border. Pakistan refuses to open the routes without an American apology.