Pak parties meet ahead of vote for interim PM

"We are trying to field one joint candidate for the prime minister's post," Shahid Shamsi, spokesman for Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), a six-party alliance of Islamic parties, told AFP.

"It may be Javed Hashmi."

Hashmi, who led a coalition of secular opposition parties, the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy, is serving a 23-year jail sentence for treason.

He was convicted in April over his distribution of a letter he said was from army officers criticising President Pervez Musharraf. The court ruled he had forged the letter and he was convicted of defaming the government and the army and of incitement to mutiny.

Jamali announced his resignation on Saturday after denying months of speculation that he was being pressured to quit by President Pervez Musharraf, the army chief who still wields ultimate power despite restoring the parliament he suspended after his October 1999 coup.

Jamali gave no reason for his abrupt departure, but observers believe he was pressed to quit because he failed to adequately counter Musharraf's tough opponents in parliament.