Assassinated Pakistani Prime minister Benazir Bhutto?s widower emerged yesterday as a likely candidate to become the next president as a split loomed in the ruling coalition led by his party.

Investors and allies have been hoping President Pervez Musharraf?s resignation on Monday would herald an end to political wrangling and a shift of focus to pressing economic and security problems. But that appears unlikely.

The coalition?s second biggest party, that of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, threatens to quit the alliance unless a decision is taken on Friday to restore judges dismissed by Musharraf last year.

Another divisive issue is likely to be the question of the next president. Bhutto?s Pakistan People?s Party (PPP), which leads the coalition, is proposing her widower, Asif Ali Zardari, for the job. ?The majority of the party thinks that Asif Zardari should be president,? said a Bhutto party spokeswoman, Farzana Raja, adding that a decision on the party?s candidate was expected today.

Under the constitution, a new president should be elected by members of the four provincial assemblies and the two houses of the national parliament within 30 days of Musharraf?s resignation.

Wrangling over the deposed judges and who becomes the next president is likely to divert government attention from economic and security problems, to the dismay of investors and allies.

Consensus candidate

Pakistani stocks and the rupee strengthened on Monday and Tuesday on the hope Musharraf?s resignation would bring an end to the political turmoil.

But both started to weaken on Wednesday as a showdown loomed within the coalition over the judges, and yesterday, stocks were about 2.5 % lower and the rupee down by more than 2 % against the dollar. Investors said they were worried political turbulence would set off rating downgrades by ?Standard & Poor?s? (S&P) and ?Moody?s?.

A regional party based in the southern province of Sindh, where Zardari is from, has also said it wants to see Zardari take over as president. He has declined to say if he wants the job.

Sharif?s party says it wants the next president to come from one of Pakistan?s smaller provinces and for the nomination to be a ?consensus candidate?. The PPP and Sharif?s party were bitter rivals during the 1990s when Bhutto and Sharif both served two terms as Prime Minister.

Thrown together by their opposition to Musharraf, differences between the two main parties will loom larger now that he has gone, analysts say.

With fighting in Afghanistan intensifying, pressure is also likely to build on Pakistan to act quickly to stop Taliban launching attacks from sanctuaries in ethnic Pashtun areas on the Pakistani side of the border.

Sharif, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, threatened to pull his party out of the coalition if it does not decide by today to reinstate the judges. ?We will not try to bring the government down,? Sharif said in remarks published yesterday. ?But of course we then have no choice but to sit in the opposition.?

The PPP is reluctant to restore the judges because of concern the deposed chief justice might take up challenges to an amnesty from graft charges granted to Zardari and other party leaders last year, analysts say. Two small parties in the four-party alliance are trying to bridge the divide.

The departure of Sharif?s party from the coalition would not force an election, analysts have said, with the PPP, the biggest party in parliament, likely to be able to gather enough support to remain in government.