Pakistan appoints new election commissioner amid protest

ISLAMABAD, Dec 6 (AFP): Pakistan's new Chief Election Commissioner took his oath of office Saturday as opposition protests for a probe into allegations of vote rigging by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif run into their fourth month.

Sardar Muhammad Raza, 69, a retired Supreme Court judge and chief of Sharia court, was sworn in as Chief Election Commissioner by Supreme Court Chief Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk, the Supreme Court said in a statement Saturday.

Pakistan's Election Commission had been without a permanent chief since the previous chief Fakhruddin G Ebrahim resigned in July last year after the Supreme Court ordered him to change the dates of presidential election.

Ebrahim conducted the landmark May 2013 election, which for the first time saw the transition from one civilian government to another.

But cricketer-turned-opposition leader Imran Khan has alleged massive vote rigging took place during those polls.

Khan has been holding demonstrations around the country since mid-August to force Sharif to step down-earlier this week he warned he would "close the whole of Pakistan" as part of a bid to topple the government.

His campaign is losing momentum, but Khan has warned that on December 16 he and his supporters would paralyse major cities starting with Lahore, Sharif's seat of power.

Followers of Khan and firebrand cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri clashed with police in late August after they tried to storm the prime minister's residence, leaving three demonstrators dead and hundreds injured on both sides.

On September 1, the opposition groups briefly occupied the state broadcaster, raising fears the military could intervene to end the crisis as it has done in the past.

Analysts believe the protests were coordinated by the powerful army as a means of re-asserting its dominance over civilian authorities.

The protests destabilised Sharif's government and dented foreign investors' confidence, but have so far failed in their stated aim of bringing down his administration.

The administration has responded by briefly suspending pro-opposition TV channels and buying attack adverts against Khan.

Meanwhile: Pakistan's military said Saturday it had killed a senior Al-Qaeda leader wanted by the US over a 2009 plot to attack the New York subway system.

"In an intelligence borne operation top Al-Qaeda leader Adnan El Shukrijumah was killed by Pakistan Army in an early morning raid in Shinwarsak, South Waziristan today," the military said.

Shukrijumah, one of the FBI's most wanted terrorists, was hiding in a compound in Shinwarsak, northwestern Pakistan, after fleeing from neighbouring North Waziristan tribal district where the army launched a major operation against militant bases in June, the military said.

"His accomplice and local facilitator were also killed in the raid," it added.

Saudi-born Shukrijumah is described by the FBI as "one of the leaders of Al-Qaeda's external operations program" and is wanted in connection with an attempt to blow up the New York subway in 2009, as well as for plots connected to targets in the United Kingdom. The FBI has a $5 million reward available for information leading to his arrest.