Bhutto party set to name Pakistan PM candidate

ISLAMABAD: The party of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was expected Thursday to nominate Pakistan’s new prime minister to lead a parliament that could decide the fate of President Pervez Musharraf.

Pakistan People’s Party vice-chief Makhdoom Amin Fahim is the frontrunner to be nominated by the party’s MPs, who are meeting in Islamabad just over two weeks after the PPP scooped the most seats in parliamentary elections.

Musharraf, a key ally in the US-led “war on terror”, saw his backers trounced in the polls and must now deal with a coalition that includes not only the PPP but also his archfoe, former premier Nawaz Sharif.

But with Washington pressing for stability in the nuclear-armed nation, the PPP-led coalition has not yet indicated whether it is ready for a full showdown with Musharraf, who seized power in a coup in 1999.

Bhutto was killed in a suicide attack in the garrison city of Rawalpindi on December 27 and her widower and successor as party leader, Asif Ali Zardari, has said he is not standing for the premiership.

Zardari was meeting on Thursday “for consultation” with the party’s newly-elected lawmakers, party spokesman Farhatullah Babar told AFP. Pakistan, Thursday, AFP