PPP's Fahim frontrunner for Pak PM's post

The newly elected Parliamentarians of Pakistan People's Party (PPP) met on Friday for the first time after it became the single largest party in the recent elections and discussed the name of Fahim, the 68-year-old Vice-President of Benazir Bhutto's party and a few other probables.

No final decision has been taken yet, party sources said, adding that the meeting lasting two hours was convened to discuss Thursday night's decision taken by former rivals PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari and PML-N's Nawaz Sharif to form a "National Consensus Government."

The names of PPP's Punjab Province President and a formal Federal minister Shah Mehmood Quereshi, senior leader Yousuf Reza Gillani and firebrand lawyer Aitaz Ahsan were also doing the rounds for the top post.

The PML-N has already made it clear that the Prime minister will be from the PPP. "We are waiting for them to nominate a suitable member of the National Assembly," PML-N Joint Secretary Siddique-ul-Farooq said.

Neither Zardari nor Sharif is immediately eligible to be premier because they are not MPs.

The ruling party—PML (Q)—which backed President Pervez Musharraf meanwhile said it doubted that the PPP-led new alliance would be stable calling it a "marriage of convenience."

As the new coalition partners PPP and PML-N joined hands with a resolve to strengthen Parliament, Musharraf said in a signed article in the Washington Post that he would work with the new Parliament.

Musharraf, a key ally in the US-led "war on terror", said Pakistan required continued US support to defeat terrorism, forge a stable government and create the foundation for economic growth.

"Because these goals are shared by the vast majority of Pakistanis, I am certain we can and will accomplish them, and I stand ready to work with the newly elected parliament to achieve these objectives," he wrote.

In comments that would be soothing for Musharraf, US Assistant Secretary of State Richard A Boucher told reporters in Brussels on that Washington "looked forward to working with President Musharraf in his new role" and all other elements of Pakistani civil society and the government.

PPP won 87 National Assembly seats in Monday's vote while PML-N won 67 out of 268 seats contested. The PML-Q won 40, with the rest going to smaller parties and independent candidates. Six results have yet to be announced.

Fahim had unsuccessfully contested the October Presidential election against Musharraf but later withdrew protesting that the General was not eligible since he was the Army chief then.

PML-N Siddique-ul-Farooq meanwhile said "the decision by the PML-N, PPP and Awami National Party to forming the government at the centre is a happy augury for the things to come in our efforts to achieve complete democracy," he said.

Farooq said PML-N has decided that Sharif's brother Shahbaz will be its chief ministerial candidate in the politically crucial Punjab province, where the party has\ emerged as the single largest group. The PPP and the PML-N has decided to form coalitions even in the four provinces of Punjab, Balochistan, Sindh and NWFP.