Opposition wins 'over half of seats' in Pakistan election

The rule of Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf was under threat today after opposition parties roundly defeated his allies in parliamentary elections.

Initial reports said the party of murdered former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and another group led by ex-premier Nawaz Sharif had so far won 153 seats, more than half of the 272-seat National Assembly.

Mr Musharraf’s supporters in the Pakistan Muslim League party were a distant third with 38 seats.

Geo TV said unofficial tallies from 229 of the seats being contested showed Ms Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party with 33% and Mr Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N party with 27%. The PML was third with 14%.

The Election Commission had results for 124 seats, with Mr Sharif’s party holding 30%, Ms Bhutto’s party 27% and the PML 12%t.

Final results were not expected before tomorrow evening. But the election’s outcome appeared to be a stinging public verdict on Mr Musharraf’s rule after his popularity plummeted following his decisions late last year to impose emergency rule, purge the judiciary, jail political opponents and curtail press freedoms.

Opposition parties today said they would try to form a government without the PML.

Mr Sharif reminded people today that Mr Musharraf had said he would step down when the people wanted him to do so.

“And now people have given their verdict,” Mr Sharif said, adding that political parties should “work together to get rid of dictatorship.”

With the support of smaller groups and independent candidates, the opposition could gain the two-thirds majority in parliament needed to impeach Mr Musharraf, who has angered many Pakistanis by allying the country with Washington to fight al-Qaida and the Taliban.

Mr Musharraf has promised to work with whatever government emerges from the election.

But the former general is hugely unpopular among the public and opposition parties that have been catapulted into power are likely to find little reason to work with him – particularly since he no longer controls the powerful army.

Mr Sharif has been especially outspoken in demanding that Mr Musharraf be removed and that the Supreme Court justices whom the president sacked late last year be returned to their posts.

Those judges were fired as they prepared to rule on whether Mr Musharraf’s re-election last October was constitutional.

If the opposition falls short of enough votes to remove Mr Musharraf, the new government could reinstate the Supreme Court justices and ask them to declare the October presidential election invalid.

Mr Musharraf, at best, faces the prospect of remaining in power with sharply diminished powers and facing a public hostile to him. Last year he stepped down as army chief, and his successor has pledged to remove the military from politics.

The PML said it accepted the results, but Pervaiz Elahi, the party’s president, noted that the party had stood by Mr Musharraf for five years.

“We respect him, and we are still with him,” he said.

The results could have far-reaching implications for the war on terrorism, especially Pakistani military operations against al Qaida and Taliban-style militants in border areas of the north-west. Mr Sharif and others have called for talks with the extremists and have criticised military operations in the area because of their impact on civilians.

Although fear and apathy kept millions of voters at home yesterday, the elections for national and provincial assemblies were a major step toward democracy in Pakistan, which has been under military rule for the past eight years under Mr Musharraf and for over half of its 60-year history.

But a win by the opposition is likely to restore the public’s faith in the political process and quell fears that the results would be rigged in favour of the pro-Musharraf forces.

Islamic militant violence scarred the campaign, most notably the assassination of Ms Bhutto, but polling day was spared such an attack. The government, however, confirmed 24 election-related deaths in clashes between political parties.

Several close political allies of Mr Musharraf were election casualties. The chairman of the ruling party, the foreign minister and railways minister were among those who lost seats in Punjab, the most populous province and a key electoral battleground.