Leader of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party Asif Ali Zardari has chosen veteran politician Makhdoom Shahabuddin as the replacement for ousted Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, state-run media reported on Thursday.
The ruling Pakistan People's Party has nominated senior leader Makhdoom Shahabuddin for the post of premier following the Supreme Court's disqualification of Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani. Shahbuddin is also a Sajjada Nashin or the descendant of a Sufi saint like his predecessor Yusuf Raza Gilani.
Little known Makhdoom Shahabuddin, Pakistan Peoples Party's nominee for the prime minister, is a strong loyalist of the Bhutto family and hails from a revered spiritual family in south Punjab.
Faced with a non-bailable arrest warrant against Makhdoom Shahabuddin, its first choice for prime minister's post, ruling Pakistan Peoples Party on Thursday fielded senior leader Qamar Zaman Kaira at the last minute besides a "covering" candidate.
A Pakistani court on Thursday issued a non-bailable arrest warrant for Pakistan Peoples Party prime ministerial candidate Makhdoom Shahabuddin in connection with alleged irregularities in the import of a large amount of the controlled drug Ephedrine during his tenure as health minister.
Pakistan's mighty military establishment and a defiant judiciary seems to have joined hands to give a tough time to a fragile Pakistan People's Party government at a critical time -- just before the election of the new prime minister following the disqualification of Yousaf Raza Gilani by the supreme court on contempt charges. Amir Mir reports.
The confrontation between the two will continue in other forms and other arenas, but to describe the recent judgement disqualifying Gilani as a judicial coup would be overstating its significance and implications, says B Raman.
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