Pakistani authorities have freed former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and a leading human rights activist from house arrest today.
The orders ending their detention came just hours before President Pervez Musharraf swore in a caretaker government to steer the country to elections.
He named senate chairman and close ally Mohammedmian Soomro, a 57-year-old former banker, as interim prime minister.
Mr Soomro and the rest of his cabinet took their oath of office at a presidential palace ceremony later in the morning, after parliament dissolved at midnight.
Mr Musharraf hailed the handover as evidence of 'a new culture of smooth transition, which is as it should be in civilised societies'.
He has promised general elections by 9 January, but opposition leaders are considering a boycott and there is growing international anger at his refusal to end the state of emergency he imposed on 3 November.
Authorities overnight withdrew a seven-day detention order on Ms Bhutto.
She had been detained behind barbed wire and wooden barricades at the home of a close aide in the eastern city of Lahore.
Three people died yesterday in protests in Karachi against her detention.
