ISLAMABAD, 31 December 2002 — Pakistan’s Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali yesterday won a confidence vote in the National Assembly. Jamali, head of a coalition that enjoys a wafer-thin majority in the 342-seat Parliament, won 188 votes.

“Consequently, the resolution for the vote of confidence in Zafarullah Jamali, the prime minister of Pakistan, has been passed,” Speaker of the National Assembly Chaudhry Amir Hussain told Parliament.

The tally was 16 votes more than he earned during the chamber’s elections on Nov. 21, when Parliament picked the premier to lead the first civilian government in three years.

Pakistan’s constitution stipulates a vote of confidence in a new prime minister must be held within 60 days of his nomination. The government is now allowed to rule for at least six months with no similar challenge. Jamali was the candidate from the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), which managed to strike an alliance with several smaller parties.

He spent much of last month canvassing for additional support to strengthen the fragile coalition which was under particular threat from the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), chaired by self-exiled former Premier Benazir Bhutto, analysts said.

PPP earned the second largest bloc of seats in the assembly after PML-Q. “This result was expected,” Ayaz Amir, a columnist for the English-language daily Dawn, told AFP.

“There were people who had come over from the PPP and all signs were there that he would win. It was no surprise.”

Prime Minister Jamali late last night left for Saudi Arabia on a three-day visit to meet senior leaders and perform Umrah, officials said.

The premier will call on the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, to “discuss bilateral matters and issues of regional and international concern,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan said in Islamabad.