Yousuf Raza Gillani, a Bhutto loyalist, will be the new Prime Minister of Pakistan, the PPP announced, ending the month-long suspense marked by bitter tussle for the top post.
ISLAMABAD: Yousuf Raza Gillani, a Bhutto loyalist, will be the new Prime Minister of Pakistan, the PPP announced on Saturday, ending the month-long suspense marked by bitter tussle for the top post.
A former Parliament Speaker who is from a landowning family in Punjab, Gillani (56) will head the incoming coalition government at a time when Pakistan is at crossroads and amid a looming confrontation with President Pervez Musharraf.
Gillani was declared as the candidate of slain premier Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) on the eve of closing of nominations for the prime ministerial elections by PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar who read out a brief statement saying he had an enormous responsibility to lead the coalition. He is currently PPP's vice-chairman.
After the National Assembly or the Parliament holds the formal elections on March 24, the new premier is set to be sworn into office by Musharraf the next day.
The election of Gillani, who spent four years in prison over allegations that he abused his authority as a Speaker, is a certainty given the majority the incoming PPP-PML(N) coalition has in Parliament.
But the candidature of the man, who defeated former premier Nawaz Sharif in 1988, is likely to further expose the serious differences within slain premier Benazir Bhutto's party since veteran politician Makhdoom Amin Fahim, another close Bhutto aide, was the initial frontrunner.
Plans for Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Benazir Bhutto's 19-year-old son who flew in from Britain, to unveil the name at a press conference were earlier dropped.
In an attempt to see that the elections do not go uncontested, Musharraf's main ally, the PML(Q), will field former chief minister of Punjab province Chaudhry Pervez Elahi as its candidate.
PPP had emerged as the biggest party from general elections on February 18 and sealed a coalition with former premier Nawaz Sharif.
Bhutto's widower Asif Ali Zardari is not eligible to be premier because he is not an MP, but party leaders say he may run for the post after contesting a by-election in May and that Gillani will perhaps be only a stand-in premier.
The party has been dogged by differences to settle on a candidate amid a power vacuum left by Bhutto's assassination with Gilani emerging as the latest frontrunner. Besides Fahim, the other contenders were Bhutto's former Commerce Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar and Punjab province party Chief Shah Mahmood Qureshi
Gillani, a key Bhutto aide had served as speaker during her second term in power from 1993 to 1996.
Sharif said in Lahore that his Pakistan Muslim League-N party "will raise no objection on the PPP nominee," adding: "Musharraf should understand that the days of dictatorship are numbered."
Gillani's candidature was announced on a day when a nominee of Musharraf's allies quit the race for the premiership. The President's political ally, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), said it had decided to withraw its candidate as a "gesture of goodwill."
"We have decided to extend unconditional support to the PPP nominee, Farooq Sattar, the candidate of the Karachi-based MQM said.
The decision to withdraw was taken after Zardari held talks with MQM leader Altaf Hussain, who lives in exile in London, Sattar said.
"It is not for greed or lust for power, it is in the larger interest of the country, for the stability of the country and for political harmony," he said.
"I have great pleasure in calling upon Yousuf Raza Gillani in the name of Shaeed(martyr) Benazir Bhutto to accept the heavy responsibility to lead the coalaition government and the nation. Yousaf Raza Gillani is not afraid to lead and he knows the way," said PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar, reading a statement from Asif Ali Zardari.
Gillani would be the first Seraiki-speaking prime minister from a region in Punjab where PPP had been winning the maximum number of seats after its Sindh stronghold.
Gilani's nomination appears to be a clear snub to Fahim, who was long presumed the front-runner after leading Bhutto's party during her nearly eight years in exile.
"I have the best wishes for him," Fahim was quoted as saying after Gilani's name was announced. Fahim said he would not quit the party.
"I pray for the success of Makhdoom Yousaf Raza,'' he said, using an honorific title.
An aristocratic party stalwart, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, has long been considered the front-runner for prime minister. As PPP vice-chairman, he led Bhutto's followers in parliament during her nearly eight-year exile from Pakistan. The battle for prime minister in fact has strained party unity even before the new coalition government assumes office.
Gillani had spent four years in jail on allegations he abused his authority as speaker during Bhutto's second term as prime minister in the 1990s. He was never convicted, and was freed in 2005.
Farooq Sattar, who met leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q), which backs Musharraf, later confirmed that he was quitting the race at a news conference.
PPP spokesman Babar hailed the MQM support as "a positive development."
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