ISLAMABAD, March 19: PPP Parliamentarians president Makhdoom Amin Fahim has called upon the leadership of the parties in the new ruling coalition to jointly name a candidate for the post of prime minister, instead of leaving it to an individual, an obvious reference to PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari.

Mr Fahim made the observation while presiding over a meeting of the joint parliamentary group at the Parliament House here on Wednesday.

About 240 MNAs, including 10 independent lawmakers from Fata, attended the meeting, according to PPP parliamentary secretary Izhar Amrohi.

A form was distributed among the MNAs seeking their preference for the standing committee they would like to be associated with.

Sources said that 46 standing committees were being formed to accommodate half of the MNAs while others would be appointed as parliamentary secretaries.

In a related development, Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, a PPP aspirant for the post of prime minister from Gujrat, objected to Mr Fahim presiding over the meeting in the absence of Mr Zardari and said it should be presided over by PPP’s chief whip Khurshid Shah.

He denied media reports that he had boycotted the meeting when he came out in the middle of the deliberations, and returned after some time.

Earlier, the coalition partners failed in their attempt to persuade the opposition to cut short the election process for speaker and deputy speaker.

According to the sources, Khurshid Shah and Naveed Qamar of the PPP had approached PML-Q president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and asked him to withdraw opposition’s candidate for the post of speaker Sardar Mohammad Israr Tareen.

Chaudhry Shujaat is reported to have made a counter-offer, asking the treasury members to withdraw their candidate for the post deputy speaker in favour of Khushbakht Shujaat of the MQM and allow two women to became custodians of the house.