The PML-N, which is set to form a coalition government in Pakistan with the PPP, on Monday said it is opposed to senior PPP leader Makhdoom Amin Fahim being made the prime minister because of his apparent proximity to the military regime.
Senior PML-N leader Khwaja Muhammad Asif said his party has "serious objections" to Fahim being made the prime minister. Asif's comments came close on the heels of differences between Fahim and Pakistan People's Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari over the nomination of the prime ministerial candidate.
Fahim, till recently the front-runner for the slot, has been sidelined by the PPP and did not attend the meeting in Murree on Sunday where the PPP and PML-N signed an agreement on forming a coalition.
Asif told Dawn News channel that Fahim had met President Pervez Musharraf on the night when former premier Benazir Bhutto was assassinated. Fahim had a second meeting with Musharraf after a couple of days, Asif said.
There have also been reports that Fahim met Musharraf a few days after the February 18 general election without informing the PPP's top leadership.
On Sunday, PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif said the prime ministerial candidate should be a person who would be able to deliver on a common agenda for governance and not someone "whose antenna could pick up rays from a different direction".
Though Sharif did not elaborate, sources today said his remarks were a tacit reference to Fahim.
Asif said the PML-N had informed Zardari about its reservations but had not told him anything about who should be nominated for the premiership.
Meanwhile, Fahim has said reports regarding his contacts with the PML-Q, the party that backs Musharraf, are baseless and that he had made no such contacts.