Pakistan to get new PM, Qamar Zaman Kaira and Raja Parvez Ashraf frontrunners

New Delhi: Two days after Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was ousted by a court order, the country is set to get its new Prime Minister. Information and Broadcasting Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira is the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) candidate, due to be voted in when the National Assembly meets on Friday.

But he was not the party's first choice, nor the second.

Makhdoom Shahabuddin, who was nominated on Thursday, had to be withdrawn after a lower court issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against him in a pharma scandal.

Yousuf Raza Gilani was ousted by a court order for not re-opening the graft cases against Asif Ali Zardari.

Covering or backup candidate Raja Parvez Ashraf has already been linked to private power projects scam.

Former diplomat G Parthasarathy said, "The Chief Justice is seen as someone who has targeted the Army and the PPP and leaving the Nawaz Sharif."

But the crisis doesn't just end with finding a clean replacement for Gilani.

The PPP has clearly said that it will not re-open the graft cases against Zardari, as the Supreme court has demanded. Leaving the new Prime Minister open to the same contempt charges that cost Gilani his job.

(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest)