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Nomination papers for the election will be filed tomorrow, Shah said. President Asif Ali Zardari, who is the head of the PPP, will choose the party`s candidate for the post of premier, he said. PPP insiders said senior party leader Makhdoom Shahabuddin has emerged as a frontrunner in the race. Others who are being considered for the post include former Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, former Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar and Samina Ghurki, a PPP leader from Lahore whose late husband was a close aide of Zardari.
The PPP`s parliamentary party is scheduled to meet this evening to discuss the election of the premier. Several of the PPP`s allies in the ruling coalition, including the PML-Q and the Awami National Party, will hold meetings today and tomorrow. The main opposition PML-N`s top leadership held a meeting in Islamabad today to discuss the election of the new premier. The meeting was chaired by PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif.
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry yesterday disqualified Gilani in response to several petitions that had challenged National Assembly Speaker Fehmida Mirza`s decision not to disqualify the premier following his conviction of contempt. The apex court ruled that the post of premier had been vacant since April 26, when another seven-judge bench had convicted Gilani of contempt for refusing to reopen graft cases in Switzerland against Zardari.