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Being an ally of Musharraf may cost Rashid dear

ISLAMABAD/RAWALPINDI: For five years, he was the flag bearer of the Musharraf regime, and that has most likely cost him an election for the first time since 1985.

But on Monday, Sheikh Rashid, the former Railways Minister and a parliamentarian from Rawalpindi for more than two decades, had lost all his famous flamboyance. He wore the look of a losing candidate and admitted as much, hours before the counting began.

Mr. Rashid contested from two constituencies in Rawalpindi. “In one, the Nawaz League candidate is strong. I have not yet lost hope in the second constituency,” he said, when The Hindu met him at his Lal Haveli home in the capital’s twin city.

But early results indicated the Minister had lost both constituencies, in one of them to PML (N) deputy leader Javed Hashmi, who Mr. Rashid had described at the start of the campaign as a walk-over. In the other seat too, the PML(N), candidate was in the lead.

Through the day, Mr. Rashid’s home, known all this time for its open house policy for constituents and always a beehive of political activity, had a funeral air about it. A handful of supporters sat downcast before a television set watching election news.

The former Minister said his prospects had been ground down by the shortages of wheat flour, gas and electricity, and the security restrictions that had been placed on his own movements.

“There was no gas supply in Pindi last month, when the temperatures went below freezing,” he said.

The last straw came on the night before the election. “The PML(N) guys put up banners saying the PML(Q) attacked Lal Masjid [the mosque in Islamabad where the Pakistan Army carried out a raid to flush out militants last summer] and anybody who votes for our party is a kufr (non-believer),” Mr. Rashid said.

The prevailing anti-Musharraf sentiment cost the PML(Q) dear, he said. Mr. Rashid said he had opposed the military action at Lal Masjid although he did not come out openly against it. Through his campaign, he distanced himself from his party and Gen. Musharraf — he reportedly scolded a campaign worker for printing posters with the President’s picture on it — but evidently, even that did not work.

Despite the money he poured into development projects in Rawalpindi, not more than 1,000 voters out of 4,000 turned out to cast their vote even at the polling station next to his house.

In the entire city, activists of the PML (N) and the PPP raced past in jubilant motorcades or on motorcycles.

Mr. Rashid also suffered a setback with the assassination of Benazir Bhutto at Liaquat Bagh, located in one of his constituencies. Although the PPP does not have much of a presence in Rawalpindi, the PML (N) candidates in both constituencies seem to have drawn some support from the anger over this as well.

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