Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain was elected in a rubber-stamp vote by the parliament on Tuesday to fill a gap of some two months until Aziz, a former finance minister credited with salvaging Pakistan's economy, can make the transition from the senate to the national assembly.

The top slot under Musharraf became vacant suddenly on Saturday when Zafarullah Jamali quit without explanation after months of rumours that Musharraf was fed up with his lacklustre performance.

The machinations have been slammed by critics as the behind-the-scenes work of the military and Musharraf, who is also army chief, and a gross aberration of democracy.

Opposition politicians speaking after Tuesday's vote questioned why Jamali suddenly resigned when there was no crisis or emergency.

Shujaat, who turns 59 next month, is a wealthy industrialist and veteran politician who served as minister under military dictator General Zia ul Haq and the prime minister deposed by Musharraf in a 1999 coup, Nawaz Sharif.

He led a breakaway faction of Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League party, seen as largely a creation of the military to provide Musharraf with political and parliamentary backing.

Shujaat played a king-making role after the October 2002 elections, held to restore the parliament suspended by Musharraf after his coup three years earlier.

But he has been plagued by allegations of corruption from opposition parties since the 2002 election campaign. He denies the charges.

The opposition Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (Movement for Justice) allege he had defaulted on loans worth more than half a million dollars from government banks.