<i>Differences remain between PPP-PML-N </i>
Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari said on Thursday that though major issues had been sorted out with coalition partnersalluding mainly to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawazbut 'small matters' remained unresolved.
Zardari also said the nominee for the prime minister slot would be finalised by the time the National Assembly was called into session, but reiterated that he was not in the running.
“I would have been the candidate for prime minister by virtue of the party office [I hold], but I have decided not to be a candidate,” he said.
Although the party tried to project the impression that delaying the nomination for the premiership was a tactical move, party sources cited internal differences over the prime ministerial candidates Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Yousaf Raza Gilani, Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar and the behind-the-scenes negotiations with the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q).
The negotiations were being pursued in case the PPP failed to work out modalities with the PML-Nawaz, the sources said. The party was finding it hard to reach a working relationship with PML-N on the key issues of the restoration of the judiciary and working with President Musharraf, they added.
At the meeting, sources said Zardari had taken the party's National Assembly members-elect into confidence on the ongoing dialogue with other political parties on government formation.
Committee: The party named a five-member committee, consisting of Mian Raza Rabbani, Farooq H Naek, Sherry Rehman, Raja Pervez Ashraf and Syed Naveed Qamar to chalk out a working formula with the PML-N.
The PPP co-chairman also announced that he would conduct further meetings with the party's MNAs-elect from each division, separately, from today (Friday) to decide which prime ministerial candidate had the broadest support.
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