So when President Bush talks of the universality of the human desire for freedom, it turns out to include the people of Pakistan. So the victory by civilian political parties in Monday’s vote in Pakistan opens a new chapter in the march of democracy. The balance among civil society, religious authorities, and the army has been unraveling for more than a year. Monday’s decisive vote will give the two largest political parties an overwhelming majority of seats in the Congress and raises the possibility of impeachment proceedings against President Musharraf.

The civilian parties also swept the field in provincial elections where the most important development came in the North-West Frontier Province along the mountainous region along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan. That is the area in which Al Qaeda and the Taliban have regrouped and from which they launch attacks against forces of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the democratic government in Afghanistan. In 2002, a coalition of hard-line religious parties, the MMA, took power. Now the voters in the area have thrown the MMA out, putting in its place a secular Pashtun alignment, the Awami National Party.

The marginalization of the MMA, at a time of mounting tensions, is the Pakistani version of the Anbar province experience in Iraq: the Pakistani Pashtun, like Sunni Arab tribes, have chosen sides against the terrorists and with democratic forces. The MMA’s sharply reduced vote in its heartland was a bellwether; the alliance was almost swept off the field, winning only a handful of seats in the new Congress.

The Pakistan People’s Party, identified with the recently assassinated Benazir Bhutto, and the Pakistan Moslem league-N, led by Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister thrown out of office when then General Musharraf seized power through a coup, are now set to form a government. The leaders of both major parties, Mr. Sharif and Mrs. Bhutto’s widower, Asif Ali Zardari, were just in a lengthy exile abroad. It gives renewed meaning to the idea of a comeback kid. Americans of all political persuasions will welcome the emergence of a Pakistani government that enjoys the backing of the Pakistan people, and not only because it reaffirms the view that democracy is compatible with a Muslim society. Pakistan is ground-zero in the war among the Moslem factions and between extremist Moslems and the west. Whatever the short-term tribulations, a democratic majority can only strengthen Washington’s hand.

* * *

What of President Musharraf? The last year has seen a long effort by him to retain power, but there is no gainsaying that the vote is a repudiation of his leadership. His own party was more than decimated and will not serve in the new government. At best, therefore, Pakistan is headed toward a period of “co-habitation” — a presidency and Congress with hostile relations. The democratic leaders feel Mr. Musharraf’s second term as president was illegally obtained. It is difficult to imagine that, now that they have the power, they will let bygones be bygones.

According to Pakistan’s constitution, the president can be “impeached on a charge of violating the Constitution or gross misconduct.” The impeachment process can be launched by a simple majority in Congress but only succeed by obtaining the backing of two thirds of the congressional votes. Mr. Musharraf’s original base of support, the army, is yet to be heard from. If the new leadership of the army decides to step back from politics, Mr. Musharraf’s days are numbered. For Mr. Bush, this can be taken as vindication of his most basic doctrine — one he has pressed more ardently than any president before him — that freedom is an aspiration that God has given to all men and women.