Fahim emerges top contender for PM

Islamabad: Officials from Pakistan's two biggest opposition parties said on Friday the vice-president of slain leader Benazir Bhutto's party was the frontrunner to become prime minister.

The news came a day after the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) led by Bhutto's widower Asif Ali Zardari and former premier Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) agreed to form a coalition government. A formal decision on the prime minister has not yet been taken and the parties were still in talks.

Makhdoom Ameen Fahim, a widely respected political figure from Bhutto's home province of Sindh, ran the party during her years in exile and was leader of the PPP parliamentarians in the last assembly.

A PPP official said there were "no differences" in the party over who should be named for the top post, but refused to divulge the name.