The party of assassinated opposition leader Benazir Bhutto is expected this weekend to nominate one of the following candidates to become Pakistan's next prime minister: n MAKHDOOM AMIN FAHIM: The veteran politician is vice chairman of Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party and has long been considered a favorite to lead the new government. His father helped Bhutto's father found the party in 1967. The 66-year-old Fahim draws extra prestige from his claim of descent from a renowned religious leader. Like Bhutto, he hails from the southern province of Sindh. n YOUSAF RAZA GILANI: A former speaker of the National Assembly who was another close Bhutto aide, Gilani is from a landowning family in Punjab province, Pakistan's political heartland. In 2005, Gilani was released from four years in jail over allegations that he abused his authority as speaker. n CHAUDHARY AHMED MUKHTAR: Bhutto's former commerce minister, Mukhtar defeated Chaudhary Shujaat Hussain, a close ally of President Pervez Musharraf and head of his former ruling party, to win a seat from Punjab in the Feb. 18 parliamentary vote. Mukhtar, 61, hails from a wealthy industrial family. He was jailed on corruption charges after Musharraf seized power in a 1999 coup but was later acquitted and freed. n MAKHDOOM SHAH MAHMOOD QURESHI: The scion of a powerful political family in the Punjab city of Multan, Qureshi was the party's losing candidate for prime minister in 2002. Suave and soft-spoken, Qureshi, 52, graduated from Britain's Cambridge University with degrees in law and politics. __
