World leaders felicitate Gillani

ISLAMABAD—US President George Bush, UK PM Gordon Brown, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh along with other world leaders have congratulated Pakistan’s new prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani on assuming his office. U.S. President George W. Bush telephoned Pakistan’s new prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, to congratulate him on being sworn in on Tuesday, a government official said.
“President Bush telephoned Yousuf Raza Gilani and congratulated him on assuming the office of prime minister,” an official in the prime minister’s secretariat told AFP news agency. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown congratulating Yousuf Raza Gilani as Pakistan’s new prime minister said that new government of Pakistan faces many challenges and UK would extend all out assistance to help Pakistan overcome these challenges.
In a statement issued by UK Foreign Ministry Gordon Brown expressed hope that UK and Pakistan would continue to work together. The European Union also welcomed the induction of Yousuf Raza Gilani as Pakistan’s new prime minister and applauded the swift release of judges detained under President Pervez Musharraf’s Emergency Rule. In a statement issued on behalf of the bloc’s 27 member states by the Slovenian presidency of the EU, Gillani’s appointment was described as “an important step in the development of democracy, stability and security in Pakistan.”—Agencies