Pakistan PM likely named next month: party official
ISLAMABAD, Feb 23, 2008
Pakistan's new government, which could drive President Pervez
Musharraf from office, will likely name its choice for prime minister
when parliament reconvenes next month, a party official said Saturday.
The two biggest parties to emerge after Monday's election have been
weighing their choice for prime minister after agreeing to form a
coalition that analysts say could place key US ally Musharraf's
political future in doubt.
Officials from both parties said the frontrunner to be prime minister
was Makhdoom Amin Fahim, the widely respected vice president of slain
former PM Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP).
"There is an agreement that Fahim should be the parliamentary leader
and candidate for PM but the announcement is unlikely to be made public
before the parliament is convened into session, most probably in the
first week of March," a senior PPP official told AFP.
Another senior PPP official said earlier that Bhutto's widower, Asif
Ali Zardari, and Nawaz Sharif, whose party emerged second to the PPP,
"discussed the name of Makhdoom Amin Fahim as the future premier" during
a meeting.
Sharif, a former prime minister, and Zardari announced that their
parties would join forces after trouncing Musharraf's allies in the
ballot. The two camps were once bitter rivals.
They have agreed that the PPP would designate the next prime
minister.
The first senior party official said that although Fahim was the man
most likely to be named, there was no rush to make a formal announcement
and internal discussions were continuing. Bhutto's assassination at a
suicide attack during a political rally in December overshadowed the
election campaign.
(AFP)
|