Rediff On The NeT: Nawaz Sharief set to be prime minister

Nawaz Sharief set to be prime minister

Sheikh Manzoor Ahmed in Islamabad

The Pakistan Muslim League of Nawaz Sharief has secured an absolute majority in the 217-member National Assembly, delivering a severe blow to its main rival, the Pakistan People's Party at the hustings.

The party, which scored a landslide victory in the Punjab province, won 108 of the 160 seats, results of which are available at the time of going to press. The League was ahead of other parties in a number of other constituencies.

The League and its electoral partner, the Awami National Party swept the polls in the North West Frontier Province, which had a strong PPP base.

The PPP has so far won seven seats, including those won by Benazir Bhutto and Nusrat Bhutto in the Larkana region.

The ethnic Haq Parast Party of Mohajir leader Altaf Hussain Fared did well in the port city of Karachi by bagging five seats.

However, Imran Khan's Tahrik-Insaf Party was completely wiped out in the elections. Imran Khan lost from all the nine constituencies from which he contested. In fact in seven constituencies, he secured less than 3,000 votes.

In the Sindh province, the picture is still hazy and the PPP is in a neck and neck race with its rivals.

League chief Nawaz Sharif, who is set to be the next prime minister of Pakistan, said his party would adopt an approach of consensus rather than confrontation with the opposition. He urged deposed prime minister Benzir Bhutto to accept the verdict and play a role of constructive opposition.

Sharif said ''I will not indulge in politics of confrontation, personal vendetta and revenge.''

However, Bhutto described the elections as a ''farce''. ''I will not accept defeat, not the one handed over to my party through cheating.''

Many heavyweights of the PPP and its allies who lost the elections included Hamid Nasir Chatta, chief of the Muslim League (Chatta group); Maulana Fazlur Rehman of the Jamait and former caretaker prime minister Balakh Sher Marari.

Ghinwa Bhutto of the PPP (Shaheed Bhutto faction) lost to her ailing mother-in-law Nusrat Bhutto from Larkana.

Another major upset was the defeat of all-time winner Ghulam Mustafa Khan who lost from two seats.

Nawaz Sharif won handsomely from Lahore while his brother also trounced the PPP rival from the adjacent constituency.

Former Pakistan ambassador to the US Syed Abid Hussain won on the League ticket from the Jung seats. In the Baluchistan province. The Baluchistan National Party fared well. Its leader Nawab Akbar Bhugti has won with a huge margin.

The League, which did not get any seat in 1993 from the province, has won two seats - the province was considered a stronghold of the Jamait-Ulem Islami, but this time round the party was almost wiped out.

In the provincial elections the Muslim League got absolute majority in Punjab and is set to form the government with its allies BNP in the NWFP.

No party is expected to get a majority in Sindh, while the BNP may stake its claim in Baluchistan.

UNI

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