GILGIT Syed Mehdi Shah, the first Chief Minister of Gilgit-Baltistan, was administered oath of office by Acting Governor Qamar Zaman Kaira at a ceremony here on Friday.

Members of the G-B Legislative Assembly, PPP leaders and senior civil, military and judiciary officials attended the ceremony.

Talking to reporters, Mr Kaira stressed the importance of maintaining peace for prosperity and development of the region and urged people to work for harmony.

He said the PPP had fulfilled its promise of giving full autonomy to the region which would now be run by elected representatives. The federal government would only provide technical assistant.

Addressing the first session of the Legislative Assembly, Chief Minister Mehdi Shah said his government would endeavour maintain peace, provide jobs to local people and develop health, education and tourism sectors.

He spoke about the political journey of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto who had done a lot for the region and it was because of their service that the people had given mandate to the PPP. The chief minister paid tribute to Lalik Jan and other martyrs. He praised President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and Mr Kaira for giving the region the right to self-governance and thanked political parties for taking part in the elections.

'Now the house is elected and it has to make legislation on 61 important matters,' he added. Mr Shah said he needed support of all parties to run the system and set examples of good governance to come up to people's expectations.

Wazir Baig was elected unopposed as speaker of the assembly. He was administered oath by outgoing speaker Malik Mohammad Miskeen.