PPP co-chairperson Asif Zardari and vice-chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim appeared to have achieved a thaw in their tense relations averting a possible schism within the party over the question of the nomination of party candidate for the post of Prime Minister.
Zardari today reached out to Amin Fahim through some intense back channel contacts and invited him to dinner for sorting out mutual differences. During these meetings Fahim clarified to senior PPP leaders that he felt insulted by the vilification campaign continuing in the Press against him.
Fahim reiterated that he staked claim to become Prime Minister on a sound political logic. He was the president of the PPP-Parliamentarian under whose banner the party contested elections. He also claimed overwhelming support to his candidature in the PPP.
He is learnt to have been offered the post of PPP parliamentary leader in the National Assembly and his son the post of adviser to the premier with the status of a federal minister. Fahim had been a loyalist of Benazir Bhutto. However, the PPP has decided in principle to nominate Asif Ali Zardari for the premiership, a post he will be eligible to occupy only after his election to the National Assembly.
Meanwhile, names of Fahmida Mirza, Azra Pechooho, sister of Asif Ali Zardari, and Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah were among those suggested for the post of interim Prime Minister pending Zardari’s election to the National Assembly, a newspaper report said.
Fahim expressed ignorance about any development regarding Zardari’s nomination for the prime ministership, but insisted that he had no differences with the PPP co-chairman.
Fahim also sent a legal notice to PML-N leader Khawaja Asif for accusing him of meeting President Pervez Musharraf on the night Benazir Bhutto was assassinated. He denied the meeting, but said on other occasions he had been meeting Musharraf on the advice of Benazir.
Meanwhile, PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif today told party MPs that the PML-N would respect the PPP decision on its choice of Prime Minister. He urged them to forge closer relations with PPP leaders and workers for strengthening democracy in the country.
