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Pakistan People's Party (PPP) co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari has nominated former health and textile minister Makhdoom Shahabuddin as the candidate for the new prime minister and former water and power minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf as the covering candidate. According to The Express Tribune, both candidates have had friction with the Supreme Court recently. Ashraf faces serious corruption allegations, and was among those against whom the chief justice had ordered legal proceedings in the rental power plants case. Shahabuddin, meanwhile, was alleged to have approved the unauthorised drug quotas that led to the ephedrine scandal involving former premier's son Ali Musa Gilani. Shahabuddin will file his nomination papers on Thursday. Under the Constitution, only a Muslim member of the National Assembly can contest for the office of prime minister, and has to be elected by a majority of the 342-member lower house of parliament, which comes to 172 votes. The PPP-led coalition enjoys a comfortable majority to secure the votes for its candidate to get elected.

PPP officially nominates Makhdoom Shahabuddin as Gilani's replacement