Pakistan - Islamic Rule Ushered Out With Celebrations

Celebratory gunfire and dancing in the streets greeted heavy election losses on Tuesday by Pakistan's main alliance of Islamic parties in a key province bordering Afghanistan.

The alliance lost many seats in Monday's parliamentary elections, according to unofficial results. After winning control of North West Frontier Province five years ago, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal alliance was the third-largest grouping in the previous national parliament with more than 50 seats.

But it had won just three seats in unofficial preliminary results announced by state-run television.

Residents in the provincial capital Peshawar welcomed the setback for the mullahs with gunfire and street celebrations. Some expressed hatred of the Islamists and called them hypocrites.

In one constituency, up to 4 000 people gathered early to celebrate the victory of Arbab Alamgir Khan, from the party of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. "Long live Bhutto!" they shouted from open-back trucks. Numerous volleys of gunfire also resounded in the city while residents danced and clapped in the streets, offering each other colourful traditional sweets.

Formed in 2002, the alliance won control of the volatile province on the back of fierce anti-American sentiment after US-led troops overthrew the hardline Taliban regime in neighbouring Afghanistan in late 2001. Their electoral success raised international fears about a growing political influence of hardline Islam in nuclear-armed Pakistan.

"These people did nothing for us during their five-year tenure and just strengthened the hands of Islamists and those supporting militancy," said Raees Zaidi, a property businessman.

Ifran Jan, an auto-rickshaw mechanic, called the mullahs "religious fanatics" and said a vote for them would be wasted. "These mullahs made our lives miserable," said Jan, his hands stained with engine oil.

A senior government official said the results showed "a clear verdict by the people against those who use religion as a tool to gain political clout."

The alliance's lack of resources was the main reason for its electoral failure, said Rahimullah Yousafzai, a Peshawar-based Afghan affairs expert and journalist. "But also there was a perception that they were low-income people when they came to power, but later on became rich," he said.

President Pervez Musharraf was viewed by the United States as its key ally in the fight against Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants based in Pakistan's tribal areas on the border with Afghanistan. Musharraf's parliamentary allies conceded defeat on Tuesday.

Yousafzai said Musharraf's response to a new government would be most important in determining whether militancy could subside after the Islamists' electoral defeat. "Militants have hatred for Musharraf and it depends whether he stays there," the analyst said.

Talat Masood, a former general who is now a defence and political analyst, said that militancy was the country's greatest challenge. "And I think a democratic government having the support of the people should be better placed to fight the war against the militants," Masood said.

Strategic Forecasting, private Washington-based analysts, said the Islamists' rise in the previous elections "seems to have been a fluke". The alliance split before the elections after one major party announced a boycott, leaving only the Jamiat-Ulema-e-Islam (JUIF) of Maulana Fazlur Rehman, a firebrand pro-Taliban cleric, to take part.

One alliance candidate, Maulana Abdul Jalil Jan, accepted his defeat, saying people had their own opinions "and the right to elect candidates whom they think can best serve their interests." Jan said his party believed in democracy and had no link whatsoever with the Taliban.

"Our people have rejected all those who think and act like Taliban," said Farid Khan, a retired government official. (IOL)
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