Amir Mir

Lahore: A last ditch effort by some close aides of President Musharraf to create a split within the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) ranks by persuading its senior vice chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim to publicly declare himself his party’s prime ministerial candidate has effectively been fizzled out.

The parliamentary party meeting of the PPP on Tuesday proposed the name of Asif Ali Zardari as the next premier.

Reports on Wednesday said the PPP has decided in principle to nominate Asif Ali Zardari for the premiership, a post he will be eligible to occupy only after his election to the National Assembly.

According to well-informed PPP insiders, the meeting of the elected parliamentarians of the PPP decided in principle that Zardari should come forward for the premiership with a view to end the rift within the party.

Since the Feb 18 elections, the PPP sources said, Makhdoom Amin Fahim was busy in a political bridge-building process with Musharraf, without even taking into confidence Asif Zardari or any other senior party leader.

After the PPP emerged as the majority party, Musharraf ’s closest aide Tariq Aziz arranged his secret meeting with the president.

During that meeting, Makhdoom was asked that he should publicly announce his candidature as the next premier.

As soon as Zardari came to know of this, he floated the name of one of his his trusted friends Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar for the slot of Prime Minister.

A chargesheet against Fahim by the Sharif-led Pakistan Muslim League proved to be the last nail in his coffin. The PML-N came out openly against Fahim’s candidacy because of his secret contacts with Musharraf, saying, “We fear that he can be a proxy of Musharraf, who can jeopardise PML-N’s relationship with the PPP.”

Source : DNA