Race for the post of prime minister continues…

The Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) and its allied parties failed to evolve a consensus on any candidate out of the two short-listed names.

However, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf is reportedly leading the race for the premiership in the information circles. PPP’s leaders including Makhdoom Shahabuddin, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and Qamar Zaman Kaira submitted nomination papers for leader of the house.

President Asif Ali Zardari conveyed to the leaders of allied parties that Raja Pervaiz Ashraf will be his party’s final candidate for the premiership. According to him, the party after consensus decided to drop the names of Qamar Zaman Kaira and Makhdoom Shahabuddin.

Earlier on Thursday, the Anti-Narcotics Force issued non-bailable arrest warrants for Shahabuddin in the drug quota scandal.

Major allied parties of the PPP, particularly the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), advised the president and co-chairman of the PPP to reconsider his decision deliberating the dubious role of former minister for water and power, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, in the Rental Power Project (RPPs) scandal.

They were of view the slot of prime minister will play important role in the upcoming months as the chief executive will lead the way to resolve the crises the country is being faced today.

Excluding the PML-Q, the allied parties proposed the name of Qamar Zaman Kaira for the slot of premiership.

However, Chief of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain rejected quietly the name of Kaira. He shared his thoughts through a common friend to the president.

The Awami National Party (ANP), however, decided to support PPP’s nominee therefore the meeting ended fruitlessly.

The meeting of the coalition partners held with President Asif Ali Zardari in the chair failed to resolve the matter. At the end, all collation parties authorized the president to finalize the name according to his own wisdom.

Spokesperson to the presidency, Senator Farhatullah Babar informed the media that allied parties extended their complete support to the PPP nominee as the candidate for the leader of the House.

He observed, “It also decided that the name of the PPP nominee will be announced by Syed Khursheed Shah at a press conference at 11am today (Friday)”.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=26619

Posted by Faisal Farooq on Jun 22 2012. Filed under Latest News, Pakistan, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.