Taliban parties take Pakistan province

A coalition of pro-Taliban religious parties today swept to victory in an Afghan frontier province, in the first solid results from Pakistan’s election.

Campaigning on an anti-American platform that called for an end to Pakistan’s support for the US-led war on the Taliban and al Qaida in Afghanistan, the bloc of six hardline parties had a clear majority in Pakistan’s North West Province, according to election commission officials.

The religious parties also performed surprisingly well in the vote for the National Assembly, Pakistan’s lower house of parliament. With returns trickling in, the religious coalition looked like it could emerge as a key partner in any alliance of parties in the centre.

Pakistanis went to the polls to elect both national Parliament and provincial legislatures yesterday, for the first time since the military ousted the democratically elected government in a 1999 coup.

Pakistan’s president Gen Pervez Musharraf has been a key US ally in the war in neighbouring Afghanistan and together they have deployed forces to frontier regions to capture fleeing al Qaida and Taliban.

The religious parties’ strong showing wouldn’t topple Musharraf from his power base but it could force him to rethink some of his policies, including his support for the US-led effort as well as his promise to stamp out religious extremism.

Qasi Hussain Ahmed, leader of Pakistan’s best-organised religious party, Jamaat-e-Islami, called on the faithful to offer prayers of thanks at mosques throughout the country today, the Muslim sabbath.

Of the 99 seats in the North West Province’s legislature, the religious coalition United Action Forum controlled 50 seats, according to early results from provincial officials.

But officially released results had the United Action Forum with 31 seats out of 53 declared districts.

The alliance would also pick up several of the province’s 22 seats reserved for women, which are allocated according to a party’s performance. There also are three seats in the frontier provincial assemblies for minorities.

Meanwhile, vote counting for the National Assembly was slow and by early today only 40 of the 272 general seats in the federal parliament were confirmed. Of those, the religious alliance already had 14 seats, including one in the federal capital of Islamabad.

The Pakistan People’s party, led by former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, was about even with the pro-military Qaid-e-Azam faction of the Pakistan Muslim League.

Musharraf reserved 60 seats for women in the National Assembly as well as 10 for minority religious groups.

The military government hailed the polling as a historic return to democratic rule. But the opposition denounced it as a stage-managed sleight of hand to mask Musharraf’s firm grip on power.

Voter turnout also appeared stronger than earlier anticipated, despite a series of decrees that kept the country’s best-known political players, including Bhutto, on the sidelines and by constitutional changes that ensure Musharraf’s ultimate control over Pakistan’s fate.

Musharraf stays as president of Pakistan for the next five years. He also has the power to dismiss parliament and the prime minister.

In Washington, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer hailed the vote. “This is an important milestone in Pakistan’s ongoing transition to democracy,” he said. “We are committed to remaining engaged with Pakistan throughout this transition process.”

A Musharraf decree that bars anyone convicted of a crime in absentia eliminated Bhutto, who has been convicted of corruption and is living in self-imposed exile. Nawaz Sharif, who was ousted by the general in 1999, accepted a 10-year exile to Saudi Arabia in return for his release from prison.