ISLAMABAD, Nov 19: President Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday summoned a special session of the National Assembly for Thursday to elect the country’s next prime minister for which three candidates are likely to be in the field.

A one-sentence notification by the National Assembly secretariat said the 342-member House would meet at 10am on Nov 21 “for the purpose of ascertainment of the member who commands the confidence of the majority of the members of the assembly”.

This ascertainment, or election, is done by a division in the House or show of hands by the House members, parliamentary sources said.

The PML-Q, which emerged as the largest single party in the Oct 10 elections with 118 seats, has named former Balochistan chief minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali as its candidate for the office, which has been vacant since Gen Musharraf toppled prime minister Nawaz Sharif in the Oct 12, 1999 coup.

Mr Jamali is likely to be faced by PPP’s Makhdoom Amin Fahim and Maulana Fazlur Rehman of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal.

But political sources said Mr Jamali was likely to clinch the office after the PML-Q candidate Chaudhry Amir Hussain won the Tuesday’s election for the National Assembly speaker with 167 votes against MMA’s Liaquat Baloch and PPP’s Aitzaz Ahsan.—RA