International   

Big heads roll in Pakistan poll

— Photo: AP

ERUPTION OF JOY: Supporters of the former Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif’s party celebrate the victory of their leader in Multan, Pakistan, on Tuesday.

ISLAMABAD: The apparent fury of Pakistani voters against President Pervez Musharraf and the previous Pakistan Muslim League (Q) government in Monday’s election claimed some big scalps.

Khurshid Kasuri, suave former Foreign Minister and a wholehearted supporter of the peace process with India, was only one in a long list of high-profile losers of the PML (Q), defeated in Kasur in the Punjab province by Pakistan People’s Party’s Sardar Assef Ahmed Ali.

The real shocker of the election was the defeat of PML (Q) president and former Prime Minister, Chaudhary Shujat Hussain, who was so confident of winning his Gujrat constituency that he did not bother to campaign until a week before polling day. He was handed a defeat by more than 13,000 votes in a head-to-head clash with PPP’s Ahmed Mukhtar, who was assisted by the PML (N) candidate standing down in his favour.

His cousin Pervez Elahi, who contested from four places, won only one.

Sheikh Rashid, who contested from two constituencies in Rawalpindi and lost both to the Pakistan Muslim League (N), left for Spain on Monday night, hours after his defeat became obvious. This is the first time in more than two decades that the flamboyant Mr. Rashid, who served in the PML (Q) government first as Information Minister and then as Railways Minister, has lost an election.

The former Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Sher Afghan Niazi, who was a vocal supporter of President Musharraf through the judicial crisis, and issued periodic warnings to the Supreme Court not to overstep its boundaries, lost his seat in Mianwali in the Punjab province.

The former Law Minister Wasi Zafar, who shot to notoriety and turned into the country’s laughing stock for threatening a journalist on live television in unparliamentary language, also lost. The PML (Q) had denied him a ticket, but he contested as an independent and was defeated by a huge margin.

Ejaz ul Haq, son of General Zia ul Haq, and Minister for Religious Affairs in the PML (Q) government, lost from both the constituencies where he was contesting.

The former Defence Minister, Rao Sikandar Iqbal, was also in the loser list, as was the former Water Resources Minister, Liaquat Jatoi. Speaker of the last Parliament Chaudhary Amir Hussain lost too.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman, leader of the Jamat-e-Ulema Islami, lost in one seat in the North West Frontier Province and was elected from another.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Big heads roll in Pakistan poll
Pakhtun party routs Islamists in NWFP
Will not accept position: Castro
McCartney divorce verdict awaited
Lee sees China, India powering aerospace industry

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu