Pakistan’s President Musharraf has sworn in his political enemy as Prime Minister on Monday. The President administered the oath during a ceremony at his office in Islamabad, which was broadcast live on television. As Yousaf Raza Gilani completed the oath, some supporters chanted “Long Live Bhutto.”

In order to frustrate Musharraf’s expectations, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Bhutto’s widower, Asif Ali Zardari, and her son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, did not attend the ceremony at the presidency. The President’s popularity over the past year and his loyalists were defeated in the February elections won by the Pakistan’s People’s Party (PPP.)

Even if Bhutto and Musharraf shook hands after the ceremony, Gilani did not hesitate to challenge Pakistan’s President, demanding the release of judges currently detained after the emergency rule was declared in November. He also asked for a U.N. investigation into Bhutto’s assassination in December last year.

The authorities removed barricades from outside the house of former chief in justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and all other judges held under house arrest. The judges were dismissed as they were about to decide on the legality of Musharraf’s re-election last year. If reinstated, they are due to take up legal challenges to him.

Two U.S. envoys arrived for talks in Pakistan and said they expect that the new government will go on with the repression of the Islamist militants along the country's border with Afghanistan. AFP news agency was told by the former general Talat Masood that the U.S officials were “fearful of any softening towards the militants by the incoming government,” as Musharraf was a key ally in the US “war on terror.”