MQM loyalist, leading businessman in the run for governor's slot.

KARACHI -- While the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan has sent five names to the prime minister so that he can select one of them for the gubernatorial office, senior leader Nasreen Jalil and wealthy businessman Amir Chishti have emerged as top contenders for the post of next Sindh governor, it emerged on Thursday.

Background conversations with several MQM-P leaders, however, suggested that a majority of party leaders wanted to see Ms Jalil as the new governor because of her long-time association with the party and the fact that, if appointed, she would be the first woman in nearly five decades to occupy the top office after Ra'ana Liaquat Ali Khan who had become the governor of Sindh in 1973.

They told Dawn that the names of Ms Jalil, who is a deputy convener of the party's coordination committee; senior deputy convener Amir Khan; deputy convener and former Karachi mayor Wasim Akhtar; MNA Kishwar Zehra and businessman Amir Chishti had been forwarded to Prime Minister Shehbaz Shairf.

Amir Khan

As per the power-sharing agreement between the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and MQM-P, the latter was given two federal ministries as well as the slot of Sindh governor.

MQM-P sends five options to PM Shehbaz; Nasreen Jalil would be first woman to hold top provincial office since Ra'ana Liaquat Ali Khan

While Senator Faisal Subzwari and MNA Aminul Haque took oath as federal ministers in the first batch of the federal cabinet, the MQM didn't have a consensus candidate for many days due to an alleged tug of war between two senior leaders of the party who wanted to get the top slot.

The sources said that initially a majority of the MQM leaders and workers felt that the party should not take the ceremonial post of the governor since it lacked a consensus candidate.

Amir Chishti

But, when the name of Ms Jalil came under discussion, the sources said almost everyone in the decision-making process concurred to it since Ms Jalil possessed both the administrative and legislative experience being a two-time senator and deputy mayor of Karachi who headed the City Council between 2005 and 2010.

Ms Jalil along with her late husband M A Jalil stood by the MQM through thick and thin. She was always considered to be a moderate and sane voice even when the MQM was led by Altaf Hussain from London. Her father was the deputy commissioner of Lahore when Pakistan came into existence. Her sister Yasmeen Lari is a renowned architect.

Nasreen Jalil

However, insiders said...