LAHORE, May 3: After giving Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi the status of senior minister, the Pakistan People's Party leadership has decided not to revoke the same title being held by Makhdoom Ameen Fahim, introducing two such slots in the federal cabinet for the first time.

Fahim, who has the portfolio of commerce and industry, was given the status of senior minister in the Gilani government.

After the PPP and PML-Q could not reach an understanding on making Mr Elahi deputy prime minister apparently because of some “legal reasons” the Chaudhry agreed to have the status of senior minister, besides the ministry of defense production and industry portfolio. Fourteen Q-League lawmakers took oath as members of the federal cabinet on Monday, with the party having seven federal and as many state ministries.

Sources said it was not easy for the PPP leadership to withdraw the status of senior minister from Mr Fahim, who earlier was a strong candidate for the slot of prime minister.

They said that to avoid making a senior party member angry 'again', party co-chairman President Asif Ali Zardari decided to keep Mr Fahim's status as senior minister intact.

Farhatullah Babar, spokesman for President Zaradri, told Dawn that the government would not take back the status of senior minister from Makhdoom Amin Fahim. “There is no problem having two senior ministers in the cabinet,” he said.

The sources said though the PPP co-chairman had succeeded in convincing Chaudhry Shujaat Husain that the issue of deputy prime minister would be sorted out at a later stage but the prime minister did not want to hand over the coveted post to the Chaudhrys of Gujrat as it could threaten his (PM's) own position.

Eminent lawyers S M Zafar and Aitzaz Ahsan are of the view that constitutional amendment is required for creating the post of deputy prime minister while the Q-League believes it can be done either through an executive order or amending the Rules of Business of the government.