Pakistan elects female speaker

Pakistan’s new parliament has elected the country’s first female speaker from the party of assassinated opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.



Fehmida Mirza, a businesswoman and medical doctor who has been elected to parliament three times, won 249 of the 324 votes in a ballot in the National Assembly.



Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party came out on top in the February 18 elections and is preparing to lead a new coalition government united against president Pervez Musharraf.



However, the party is to decide on who should be the next prime minister.