Islamabad: Former Premier Benazir Bhutto on October 31 nominated Mukhdoom Amin Fahim to head Pakistan People's Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) in Parliament and asked the party to strive to form a coalition government that would reject the Constitutional amendments brought in by the military regime, even as she accused President Pervez Musharraf of making "botched" attempts to split her party.

All attempts by the military regime to split PPPP after the October 10 polls have failed, Bhutto, who is in self exile, told a gathering of the party's newly elected Parliamentarians over phone.

Asserting that the party has remained steadfast and united, Bhutto, who held several rounds of the talks with officials of the Bush administration during the last few days in Washington, said the party would not support the Legal Framework Order (LFO), which incorporated the Constitutional amendments brought in by Musharraf.

Bhutto also nominated Fahim, who was accused of hobnobbing with the military ruler, to head the party in Parliament.

Fahim's meeting with Musharraf last weekend at a hilltop restaurant had drawn criticism from the party and it was seen as an attempt to split PPPP. Media reports speculated that the government was wooing Fahim to walk away with 26 of the party's 63 members of the National Assembly to help form a coalition government with pro- Musharraf PML-Q.

Three PPPP members of the National Assembly reportedly failed to attend the party's meeting on October 31.

PTI