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Opponents of Pakistan President win elections

In what was being billed as a referendum on Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf's rule, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), the party of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, and Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), the party of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, have won the election as voters spurned Musharraf's former ruling Party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, reports Sheraz Khurram Khan, special correspondent for ASSIST News Service in Pakistan.

As of 8.45 p.m. (1545 GMT), unofficial results for 261 seats showed Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) had won 87 and Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) had 67. The pro-Musharraf PML trailed with 38. Small parties and independents shared the others. The PPP has won the largest number of seats in the national assembly due to sympathy vote it got after killing of Ms. Bhutto but it failed to get as many seats as it was expected to bag which some believe is because of halting of the election campaign by the PPP to mourn her death.

The PML-Q has conceded defeat in the election as its President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, who could not win a seat from any of the two constituencies he had contested elections from reportedly asked Sharif to fulfill his promise of getting the suspended judges reinstated. The judicial crisis occurred in Pakistan when Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf suspended Pakistan Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on charges of abuse of office on March 9 last year.

Chaudhry was reinstated after some months but he was again suspended by Musharraf as he seized emergency powers on November 15, 2007. Musharraf's approval rating started plummeting after his stand-off with the judiciary. It showed a further decline following assassination of Ms. Bhutto in a gun and suicide attack on December 27, 2007 as his government was blamed by the PPP for failing to provide adequate security for Mrs. Bhutto's election meeting. The shortage of flour, unannounced power cuts, and surge in the consumer prices further dented Musharraf's popularity graph.

In a televised address early Monday, Musharraf, who had promised to hold “free, fair and transparent” elections, pledged to abide by the results. “This is the voice of the nation,” he said on state-run Pakistan Television. “Everyone should accept the results. That includes myself.”

Sharif, a rival of President Musharraf, reportedly demanded of Pakistan President to step down from office. With poor showing of the PML-Q's candidates in the parliamentary elections the Pakistan Peoples Party and the PML-N are likely to form a coalition government. Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto's widower, said the PPP had the right to form a coalition government, adding there would be no place in it for the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League (PML).”As the largest political force of the country, we demand that we be allowed to make the government,” he told a news conference in Islamabad. Sharif told a news conference in Lahore that he planned to meet Sharif on Thursday.

Unlike 2002 elections result, the Islamists failed to bag as many seats as they had clinched in the previous elections as most of them boycotted the elections.

There has been a low turn-out, 35 percent, in the Pakistan elections as the fear of bombings kept people from turning up at the polling stations.

Pakistan election has not been without violence as the PPP alleged that some 25 of its workers were killed in polls-related violence. At some polling stations people complained that their names were absent in the voters list. Talking to ASSIST a couple of embarrassed people said they were surprised to find out that their names were missing in the voter’s lists. Others said they had to experience problems in casting their votes as some of their family members had to cast their votes at polling stations different than theirs. They said they did not have to face this problem in the previous elections as then all of their family members had cast their votes at the same polling station.

Talking to ANS the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance Chief, Mr. Shahbaz Bhatti claimed that the Christian voters played a decisive role in 70 constituencies of the national assembly. The All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA) brokered election alliance with the PPP as the Pakistan Peoples Party included in its manifesto minorities' long-standing demands including a fixed quota in the public sector jobs, enhancement in the national and provincial assembly seats as well as representation in the Senate, he said. The APMA chief also went on to say that the repeal of Pakistan controversial blasphemy laws, whose nagging presence has long been condemned by the minorities, also features on the PPP's election manifesto.

Shahbaz and the APMA activists across Pakistan waged a full-blown election campaign for the PPP. He said he was pleased to see the active participation of the Christian voters in the elections. Dubbing the Pakistan elections as a “victory of moderates”, Mr. Shahbaz said there had been “selective rigging” but termed the 2008 polls as “more or less free and fair”. He said that due to the military crackdown against extremists in areas like Sawat the hard-line Islamists went into hiding and that's why they did not turn up at the polling stations. To bolster his notion, Shahbaz cited an example of a constituency where he said only 12,000 voters turned up to cast their votes whereas the total number of registered vote in that constituency stood at 100,000.

He said fear of suicide bombings also kept people from casting their votes. Asked if he had any reservations against Mr. Nawaz Sharif, whose party is likely to form coalition government with the PPP, Mr. Shahbaz expressed the hope that Sharif would emerge as a minority-friendly leader. He hailed Sharif for his demands that include reinstatement of judges, rule of law and restoration of constitution. Asked how many minority candidates had made to the assemblies, he said the minorities candidates election result would be announced in a couple of days.

Pakistani Christians while talking to ASSIST News Service have expressed optimism that their long-standing demands would be fulfilled during the PPP's stint in power. The Christians, majority of whom voted for the PPP celebrated in the streets across the country as results rolled out showing PPP candidates winning. The Pakistan Peoples Party's win has heralded hope for the lowest of the low in Pakistan as they seem convinced that with the victory of the PPP the Islamic militancy would be curbed and they would get their rights in this predominantly Muslim country. The implementation of PPP's election manifesto concerning minorities will help remove sense of deprivation, disillusionment and alienation from among the Pakistani Christian and the other religious minorities.

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[02/20/2008]

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