Pro-Musharraf Party Concedes Defeat in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s ruling party conceded defeat today after opposition parties routed allies of President Musharraf in parliamentary elections that could threaten the rule of America’s close ally in the war on terror.The head of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, told AP Television News that “we accept the results with an open heart” and “will sit on opposition benches” in the new parliament.”“All the King’s men, gone!” proclaimed a banner headline in the Daily Times. “Heavyweights knocked out,” read the Dawn newspaper.The results cast doubt on the political future of Mr. Musharraf, who was re-elected to a five year term last October in a controversial parliamentary ballot.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 in 2001 to fight Al Qaeda and the Taliban after the September 11 attacks in America.Final results were not expected before this 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.The private Geo TV network said the party of a slain former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, and another group led an by ex-premier, Nawaz Sharif, had so far won 149 seats, more than half of the 272-seat National Assembly.The pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Q party was a distant third with 33 seats. A ream of party stalwarts and former Cabinet ministers lost in their constituencies.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 election invalid.The spokesman for Mr. Sharif’s party, Sadiq ul-Farooq, told reporters today that Mr. Musharraf “should go.” But he added that if the restored justices validate Mr. Musharraf’s October election to a new term, the opposition would accept the decision.“We want to put Pakistan back on the track of democracy, constitution and rule of law, and the restoration of sacked judges is a must to achieve this goal,” he said.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-Q said it accepted the results, but the party’s president, Pervaiz Elahi, noted that the party had stood by Mr. Musharraf for five years.“We respect him, and we are still with him,” Mr. Elahi, the outgoing chief minister of Punjab province, told Geo TV today.The results could have far-reaching implications for the American-led war on terror, especially Pakistani military operations against Al Qaeda and Taliban-style militants in border areas of the northwest. Mr. Sharif and others have called for dialogue with the extremists and have criticized military operations in the area because of their impact on civilians.A leading opposition politician from the northwest, Afrasiab Khattak, said his Awami National Party did not believe “that a military solution will work,” adding his group “will never support American forces coming here and operating.”In Karachi, the Pakistani stock market rose 2.15% to 14,669.87 points and the rupee gained against the American dollar. Traders said the market was reacting positively because the election was generally peaceful.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 favor of the pro-Musharraf forces.Islamic militant violence scarred the campaign, most notably the December 27 assassination of charismatic opposition leader Bhutto, but polling day was spared such an attack. The government, however, confirmed 24 election-related deaths in clashes between political parties.Geo TV said unofficial tallies from 229 of the 268 National Assembly seats being contested showed Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party with 33% and Mr. Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N party with 27%. The pro-Musharraf PML-Q was third with 14%.The Election Commission had results for 124 seats, with Mr. Sharif’s party holding 30%, Bhutto’s party 27% and the PML-Q 12 percent.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.Religious parties also fared badly, and were set to lose their control of the North West Frontier province gained in the last parliamentary elections in 2002, when they benefited from Pakistani anger over the American-led invasion to topple the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Pro-Musharraf Party Concedes Defeat in Pakistan

Pro-Musharraf Party Concedes Defeat in Pakistan

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