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| Pakistan ruling party names new candidate to be PM | Pakistan ruling party names new candidate to be PM |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| Pakistan's ruling party has replaced its nominee for prime minister after a judge ordered the arrest of President Asif Ali Zardari's preferred candidate. | |
| Former Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf is now set to become prime minister after a vote in parliament later on Friday. | Former Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf is now set to become prime minister after a vote in parliament later on Friday. |
| First-choice candidate Makhdoom Shahabuddin is wanted over illegal drug imports while he was health minister. | First-choice candidate Makhdoom Shahabuddin is wanted over illegal drug imports while he was health minister. |
| Pakistan has been without a government since Yousuf Raza Gilani was removed from office on Tuesday. | |
| The move was part of a long-running and bitter feud between the government and the Supreme Court. | The move was part of a long-running and bitter feud between the government and the Supreme Court. |
| "Raja Pervaiz Ashraf is our final nominee," senior Pakistan People's Party (PPP) member Khurshid Shah told a news conference on Friday. | |
| Mr Ashraf emerged as the likely next PM after high drama on Thursday which saw a judge issue a warrant for Mr Shahabuddin's arrest as he was filing his nomination papers. | |
| Three other candidates are also standing for the post of prime minister. One, Qamar Zaman Kaira, is also a PPP member. | |
| The other two are Jamiat-i-Ulema Islam (JUI-F) leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan Abbasi from the PML-N party of opposition leader Nawaz Sharif. | |
| General elections are due by early next year. | |
| Sleaze row | |
| As with many politicians in Pakistan, the PPP's new choice to lead the government into elections also faces controversy. | |
| He has been dogged by allegations of corruption relating to power projects when he was water and power minister. He denies the charges. | |
| But even if Mr Ashraf does become prime minister, he is likely to face the same Supreme Court demand as Mr Gilani for the launch of a corruption inquiry into Mr Zardari. | |
| It was Mr Gilani's refusal to do so that led to his convictions for contempt in April and his disqualification from public office two months later. He argued the president had immunity from prosecution. | |
| The charges against President Zardari date back to the 1990s when his late wife Benazir Bhutto was prime minister. They were accused of using Swiss bank accounts to launder bribe money. | |
| President Zardari has always insisted the charges against him are politically motivated. |