Makhdoom Amin Fahim, the PPP leader who is the front-runner to become Pakistan's prime minister, may not bag the post as some sections of the party are lobbying for the slot to be given to a leader from Punjab.
There has been a change in thinking within the Pakistan People's Party in the last two days and three other names are now doing the rounds in the party -- Shah Mehmud Qureshi, Yousuf Raza Gillani and Ahmed Mukhtar, who defeated PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain with a huge margin in Gujrat, The News reported on Thursday.
Mukhtar said that during the past two days, there was some "change in thinking within the party ranks" regarding the province from which the PPP should nominate its prime minister.
PPP sources had earlier said the post would go to Sindh, the impoverished southern province to which Fahim and slain party chairperson Benazir Bhutto belong.
Fahim, who met Zardari with his son Jameeluzzaman in Islamabad, has been given an "indirect message" to let his son become the chief minister of Sindh and, consequently, Fahim should not claim the slot of prime minister, the report said.
Four former ministers of Bhutto's government -- Raza Rabbani, Nawab Yousuf Talpur, Naveed Qamar and Syed Khurshid Shah have also sent a message to PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari to leave the decision to nominate the prime minister to the party's central executive committee as such a move would keep the party united, the report said.
"If someone from Sindh like Fahim becomes the prime minister, it might be difficult for Zardari to remove him for political considerations. So a prime minister from the Punjab greatly suits Zardari in the long run (who would at some stage want to become prime minister)," the report quoted sources as saying.
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