PPP meeting over, Pak PM announcement in next 48 hrs

PM FROM PUNJAB? Zardari might opt for a leader from the politically crucial province of Punjab.

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New Delhi: Newly elected parliamentarians of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) held a meeting on Thursday to name the party's prime ministerial candidate.

The meeting lasted for over two hours, but the party has not made a formal announcement as yet. The word is that the PPP will declare its chosen nominee within the next 48 hours.

PPP vice chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim, 69, was first tipped as the front-runner for the post but its co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari recently indicated that the party might have to opt for some other candidate to carry along parties from all the provinces in forming a coalition government.

Other leaders running for the post include former federal minister and industrialist Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, who defeated PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain in the February 18 general election, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, the chief of PPP's Punjab unit, and former National Assembly speaker Yusuf Raza Gillani.

Mukhtar, Qureshi and Gillani all hail from Punjab.

There were indications that Zardari might opt for a leader from the politically crucial province of Punjab to head the new coalition government to be formed by the PPP with the backing of former premier Nawaz Sharif's PML-N and the Awami National Party.

The selection of a prime minister from Punjab would allow the PPP to strengthen its position in that province, where the PML-N emerged the largest party in the polls.

Party insiders, however, noted that the unassuming and soft-spoken Fahim, who hails from Sindh, represented the best option for forging a government of national consensus as desired by Zardari.

PPP emerged as the single largest party in the parliamentary polls.

(With agency inputs)