Pakistani PM candidate seen a low-key loyalist

By Robert Birsel

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The man set to become Pakistan's next prime minister is a staunch loyalist of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto who might be asked to step aside for her widower.

Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP), which won the most seats in a February 18 general election, said on Saturday its candidate for prime minister would be a party vice chairman, Yousaf Raza Gilani.

President Pervez Musharraf has asked the National Assembly to reconvene on Monday to elect the prime minister and Gilani is all but guaranteed to win with the backing of his party and its coalition allies who control about two-thirds of seats.

Analysts have speculated the PPP would nominate a stop-gap prime minister, and Bhutto's widower, Asif Ali Zardari, would take over the post later.

Zardari did not stand in the election and, because a prime minister must be a member of parliament, he will have to win a by-election if he wants the top job.

Gilani, a member of a prominent family from Punjab province, is a former minister and was National Assembly speaker from 1993 to 1997 during Bhutto's second term as prime minister.

He later spent four years in prison on charges of making illegal government appointments. He said the charges were politically motivated.

His mother and sister died while he was in prison.