ISLAMABAD, March 12: After a smooth sailing in nominating loyalists to the offices of chairman and deputy chairman, the Pakistan People’s Party leadership has now entered uncertain waters in choosing the leader of house in the Senate.

After all, the one chosen will be representing the prime minister, and so, politically, has to be an ultra loyalist.

The post for the leader of the house fell vacant after Nayyer Hussain Bokhari took charge as Senate chairman on Monday.

Sources in the PPP told Dawn that the party leadership, which faced no difficulty and received cooperation from all coalition partners over the nomination of two party men for the top Senate offices, was not getting a similar response from them for appointment of a new leader of the house. One of its major coalition partners has already refused to accept possible nomination of Raza Rabbani for the office.

Although the PPP has not even suggested any name for the office, Pakistan Muslim League-Q president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has reportedly told President Asif Ali Zardari that his party will not accept Mr Rabbani as the leader of the house unless he apologised on the floor of the house over his previous remarks against the party and its leadership.

“We cannot accept a man as leader of the house who does not even recognise our party,” the PML-Q chief is reported to have told President Zardari, who is also co-chairman of the PPP.

According to the Constitution, the leader of the house in the National Assembly becomes the country’s prime minister and he is represented in the upper house by a senator who is known as “leader of the house in the Senate”.

The sources said the PPP leadership considered both Mr Rabbani and party stalwart Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan as the most suitable candidates for the important slot, but it was reluctant to nominate any of them because of their recent track record.