PPP man and Bhutto loyalist Fahim frontrunner for PM146;s post

Senior PPP leader and Bhutto loyalist Makhdoom Amin Fahim was the frontrunner to become Pakistan8217;s next prime minister...

Senior PPP leader and Bhutto loyalist Makhdoom Amin Fahim was the frontrunner to become Pakistan8217;s next prime minister, a day after the two major opposition parties and once bitter rivals decided to stitch a new governing coalition.

The newly elected Parliamentarians of Pakistan People8217;s Party PPP met on Friday for the first time after it emerged as the single largest party and unanimously authorised party8217;s co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari to choose the prime ministerial candidate.

According to PPP sources tonight, no final decision has been taken and that an announcement of the party8217;s nominee to head the coalition of PPP and Nawaz Sharif8217;s PML-N was unlikely any time now.

Fahim68, who is PPP8217;s vice-chairman, was the public face in slain premier Benazir Bhutto8217;s cabinet. Sources in both PPP and PML-N said the widely respected PPP leader was a leading contender.

The names of PPP8217;s Punjab Province President and a former Federal minister Shah Mehmood Quereshi, former national Assembly speaker Yusuf Reza Gillani and firebrand lawyer and a party supporter Aitaz Ahsan were also doing the rounds for the top post.

According to reports, there was every likelihood that a formal announcement of the prime ministerial candidate and government formation could take a few days. After the PPP meeting, Zardari said it was meant to discuss the name of the new prime minister.

8220;We think they PPP will choose their best person for the job,8221; said PML-N spokesman Sadiq-ul-Farooq after Sharif8217;s party made it clear that the new premier will be from the winning party.

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Zardari briefed the parliamentary party about the PPP8217;s dialogue with other political parties, including the PML-N and Awami National Party, to form coalition governments in the centre and provinces. 8220;I am looking for a broader national conesnsus government,8221; he had said on Thursday.

The PPP8217;s parliamentary parties from Punjab and North West Frontier Province will meet here tomorrow while the meetings of newly elected members of the Sindh and Balochistan assemblies will be held in Karachi on Sunday.

Zardari told the meeting that the polls were marred by 8220;massive pre-poll rigging and selective rigging on the election day that was marked by violence, stealing of ballot papers in Sindh and Punjab and the withholding of results for manipulation in a number of constituencies8221;.

8220;The voting also shows that President Pervez Musharraf8217;s political loyalists have been completely rejected by the people of Pakistan,8221; he said.

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The participants vowed to work for the restoration of parliamentary supremacy 8220;by undoing undemocratic provisions under which elected parliaments have been dismissed8221;, he said.