The party of slain Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto nominated yesterday a close associate of her widower to be parliament's first female speaker, but divisions remained over who should be the next prime minister.

Fahmida Mirza, a businesswoman and three-time lawmaker, will become the first woman speaker of the National Assembly, or lower house, if approved as expected in a parliamentary vote today.

Her husband is a longtime confidant of Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto's widower and now party leader, thought to have a final say over the party's nominations.

"For me there would be no government versus opposition ... As speaker, the whole house would be equal in my eyes," Mirza reporters yesterday.

Faisal Karim Kundi, who defeated a pro-Taliban incumbent for his parliamentary seat in Pakistan's volatile northwest, was nominated by the party as deputy speaker.

The new parliament convened on Monday for the first time since opponents of US-backed President Pervez Musharraf swept to victory in last month's elections.

With the second largest number of parliament seats, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's followers have pledged to form a coalition government with Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party, which won the largest number. It falls to the PPP to name a prime minister, and party spokesman Farhatullah Babar said yesterday an announcement would be made before a parliamentary vote by next week.

Neither Mirza nor Kundi were mentioned as possible candidates for prime minister. But there is speculation that if Mirza, who is from Sindh province, becomes speaker, the prime minister would likely hail from the largest province of Punjab.

The initial front-runner for the job, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, has expressed frustration that his nomination has not been announced. Shortly after Bhutto's Dec 27 assassination in a suicide attack, Zardari told reporters that Bhutto had wanted Fahim to be the party's candidate for prime minister.

Agencies

(China Daily 03/19/2008 page11)