M A I N   N E W S

Pak heads for hung House

Qazi Hussain Ahmed, right, is received by his supporters in his constituency after winning elections in Nowshera, near Peshawar, Pakistan, on Friday. A coalition of pro-Taliban religious parties that campaigned on an anti-American platform swept a provincial legislature in a frontier area near the Afghan border. — AP/PTI photo

Islamabad, October 11
An Islamic alliance opposed to President Pervez Musharraf’s support for the US-led war in Afghanistan today won a shock landslide in conservative border areas as Pakistan headed for a hung Parliament with no single party able to claim a clear majority in the general elections.

State media announced 234 out of the 272 National Assembly seats out of which pro-military Pakistan Muslim League (Q) was in the lead at 73 places. With only 38 seats left, there was no chance of it clinching the 137 needed for majority.

Former premier Benazir Bhutto’s PPP closely trailed with 49 and her ally PML-N led by ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif lead with 13 along with 25 Independents.

The prominent winner in the poll, however, appeared to be six-party pro-Taliban Muthahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) which won an unprecedented number of 44 seats in the National Assembly.

Also much to the disquiet of the Bush administration, the MMA would form the provincial governments in the sensitive North West Frontier Province and Baluchistan, bordering Afghanistan, where most of the joint US and Pakistani forces hunted for the fugitive Taliban and al-Qaida militants. The jailed leader of the outlawed Islamic extremist organisation Sipah-e-Sahaba, Maulana Azam Tariq, was among the 25 victorious Independents.

Pakistan voted yesterday for a federal legislature and four provincial legislatures — Punjab, Sindh, Baluchistan and North Western Frontier Province — for the first time since a 1999 military coup staged by Gen Musharraf.

Votes were being still counted after polling closed last evening. Results from the 272 national constituencies have been rolling in since midnight. Another 70 seats reserved for women and non-Muslim communities will be decided next week on a proportional representative system.

Opposition parties branded the poll fraudulent and Ms Bhutto called for fresh elections as the outcome made top government officials as well as the anti-Musharraf parties to work out permutations and combinations to cobble a coalition.

“This is a major breakthrough. The people have voted for alternative,” Mr Qazi Hussain Ahmed said. PTI