Faced with the Sunday deadline, the Pakistan People's Party on Friday said that it would announce the name of the new prime minister this weekend. However, senior party leaders continued to wrestle with differences on the issue over a month after the parliamentary polls.
PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar told reporters that the name of the party's nominee for premiership would be announced either on Saturday or Sunday. President Pervez Musharraf on Thursday summoned the National Assembly on March 24 to elect the new prime minister.
The National Assembly secretariat has said that nominations for the post will have to be filed by 2 pm on March 23. Differences in the PPP on who should lead the coalition government continued with vice chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim, once a frontrunner for the post, saying he had suggested a formula to Zardari to resolve the differences.
Fahim, who has refused to drop from the PM race, said he was aware that Zardari, Bhutto's widower, was finding it difficult to decide on a nominee. "I know Zardari is in a little problem about deciding the nominee for prime ministership and I have given him a two-point formula. It is a very easy formula and if he works on one of these two points, the problem will be resolved," Fahim told reporters shortly after his arrival in Karachi.
Fahim, who did not give details of the formula, made it clear that the PPP's nominee for premiership not yet been named and that he was still in the race for the slot. Asked if the candidate would be from Sindh or Punjab province, Fahim replied: "I don't want to cause a conflict between Pakistan's provinces. I believe in Pakistan and the nominee will represent Pakistan."
Fahim dismissed suggestions that he had left Islamabad to avoid meeting Bilalwal, who was made the PPP chairperson after the assassination of his mother Benazir Bhutto .
Noting that he had come to Karachi to celebrate Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi or Prophet Mohammed's birth anniversary with his family, Fahim said he would go to meet Bilawal if the PPP chairman called him.
"He has come home to meet his father. If there is contact, I will go and meet him," he said. Fahim also made it clear that any confrontation between the presidency and parliament will be harmful for democracy.
Observers believe Zardari has called in his teenaged son, who is a student in Oxford, to name the candidate for premiership to avert any rift within the party, especially as Bilawal is seen as the torchbearer of the Bhutto family.
It would be difficult for Fahim to openly oppose any decision announced by Bilawal, they pointed out. Zardari had told reporters three days after Bhutto's assassination that she had wanted Fahim to be the party's prime ministerial candidate.
Speaking in the parliament on Wednesday, Fahim said Zardari was known for delivering on his commitments and hoped he would "continue to keep his promises".
A majority of the PPP's newly elected parliamentarians have suggested that Zardari should become the premier, but the party co-chairman will have to contest by-polls to the National Assembly if he wants to take up the post himself.