The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on Friday said it will announce the name of the new prime minister this weekend, while senior party leaders wrestled with differences over the issue of the PM nominee.

But differences within the PPP on who should lead the coalition government continued.

Vice-chairman of PPP Makhdoom Amin Fahim, once a frontrunner for the post until he was sidelined by PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, said he has a formula to resolve differences over choosing a nominee.

Fahim, who has refused to disengage from the PM race, said if Zardari followed his two-point formula, the problem will be solved. But he didn’t disclose his formula.

Analysts say Zardari has called in his teenaged son to name the PM candidate to avert any rift within the party, especially as Bilawal is seen as the torch-bearer of the Bhutto clan.

INQUIRY

An inquiry was ordered on Friday into the death of Indian detainee Laxman Kanji in a police hospital in Karachi, the Pakistani government said, reports PTI from Lahore. Kanji, 40, who was arrested in February 2006 for fishing in Pakistani waters, died on Thursday of a “cardiac arrest” in a Lahore hospital.