ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Benazir Bhutto took office Friday as prime minister of Pakistan, assuming the mantle of her executed father, and immediately pledged to 'heal the wounds' of late president Mohammad Zia ul-Haq's 11-year dictatorship.
'The policies of the previous government made the country face a number of external threats,' the first woman leader of a Moslem nation said in a television and radio speech hours after taking the oath of office. 'They have created dangers all around us.'
Bhutto pledged to free political prisoners sentenced by the Zia regime and remove press restrictions. She vowed improved relations with arch-rival India, to promote foreign investment and revitalize the economy, which she said as 'on the brink of collapse,' and 'wipe out the inequalities' in the country.
'Our message is that of hope, unity, peace and freedom,' she said, according to an unofficial translation of her 30-minute speech in Urdu. 'We hope to make a progressive, democratic and exploitation-free Pakistan.'
'We will heal the wounds and undo the damage' of the Zia government.
The 35-year-old leader of the Pakistan People's Party earlier recited the oath of office to President Ghulam Ishaq Khan in a brief ceremony in the massive hall of modern presidential palace, watched by family members, legislators and senior military officials.
Bhutto, wearing a bright green traditional salwar kameez and white head scarf, smiled broadly afterward, as a few supporters in the hall stood up and shouted 'Long Live Bhutto.'
'By the grace of God we have succeeded, although there have been many obstacles in the way,' Bhutto told reporters after the brief ceremony.
Ishaq Khan confirmed Bhutto as prime minister Thursday more than two weeks after the first democratic general elections in 11 years in which Bhutto's party took the largest block of seats in parliament, but failed to get an overall majority.
She is now the first woman leader of a Moslem nation and the youngest prime minister of Pakistan, which has been under military rule for more than two-thirds of its 41-year history.
Her father, prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was overthrown in a 1977 coup by then army chief of staff Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq and later hanged for the murder of a political opponent despite international appeals for clemency.
President Zia imposed eight years of martial law before introducing limited democracy in 1985. He dismissed the government last May and called new elections before his death in a mysterious Aug. 17 plane crash.
Bhutto, who was educated at Harvard and Oxford, spent several years in jail or under house arrest during Zia's rule, before living in exile in England. She returned in April 1986 following the lifting of martial law and immediately began a campaign to restore democracy.
'In 1971 my father rebuilt the country when it was divided,' Bhutto said in her address to the nation. 'Today, we are at a point where we have to integrate the country and strengthen it again. The nation can be strong only when we take care of basic needs.'
'We will shelter the shelterless, employ the unemployed, educate the illiterate and wipe out inequalities,' she said.
The new prime minister said she did not know 'what conditions the previous government had agreed on to obtain foreign loans' but indicated she would attempt to depend on internal resources.
'We have our own money and we can mobilize it,' she said. However, she added that defense, which takes up about 46 percent of the budget 'is sacred and we will give full attention to this.'
The PPP won the largest number of National Assembly seats ahead of the Islamic Democratic Alliance, led by former Zia associates, in the Nov. 16 general elections, but failed to secure an absolute majority.
Bhutto's nomination as prime minister was virtually ensured on Wednesday when her chief rival for the position, IDA leader Nawaz Sharif, abandoned his bid to form a government.
Sharif was sworn in as chief minister of Punjab, following his election by the provincial assembly hours earlier. The vote was made by a show of hands and was boycotted by PPP legislators in the assembly, who had demanded a secret ballot. However, it was uncertain whether Sharif could survive a no-confidence motion.
No party in Punjab secured an overall majority in the Nov. 19 provincial elections, but the IDA had more seats over the PPP.
Sharif's win could result in friction between the IDA government in Punjab, Pakistan's largest province, and new Bhutto administration in Islamabad.
However, PPP governments took power Friday in Sind and North West Frontier Provinces. The result of the vote in the fourth provincial assembly, in Baluchistan, was awaited.
The PPP only gained an absolute majority in its stronghold of southern Sind, and was forced to form a coalition government in NWFP.
Presidential elections are scheduled for Dec. 12, with voting by an electoral college composed of members of the National and Provincial Assemblies. Ishaq Khan, a former Senate chairman and Zia's constitutional successor, is likely to be reconfirmed as head of state.
