Spring Onion
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Elections 2008
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The big deal is that its an ethnic split, non-pakhtuns (and many pakhtuns) don't want it. My tribe, which speaks a language called Ormari, would be agaist it, as would Hazara div, and Chitral and Kohistan and DI Khan distrrict not to mention the Hindkos of Peshawar.
IceCold
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Whats with the name change? If you could enlight me on this issue a little. WHy has this been made an agenda? Is this so important?
Regards
IceCold
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Oh come on guys lets have some insight on real issues.
the main thing is we are going to have a coalition government and i dont see lasting love between PML-N and PPP.
plus we had to see who will gonna come up as PM.
the main thing is we are going to have a coalition government and i dont see lasting love between PML-N and PPP.
plus we had to see who will gonna come up as PM.
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US pleased with Pakistan election
By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer
18 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration said Tuesday that while Pakistan's election was a step toward restoring democracy in the key U.S. anti-terror ally, it is holding off on a definitive assessment until final results are in.
With ruling party conceding defeat in Monday's vote, the State Department said Tuesday it was "pleased" that the election, which was postponed from January after the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, had come off relatively peacefully and without major apparent fraud.
"This is an important step on the path towards an elected, civilian democracy that reflects the choices of the Pakistani people," said Nicole Thompson, a department spokeswoman. "We and others in the international community have stressed the importance of having as free, fair and transparent an election process as possible."
She noted there were numerous international and independent local election monitors who had yet to offer reports on the voting process, and she declined further comment until they had spoken and the final official tally is released.
"We will wait for the final election results and the chance to review the monitoring groups' reports before commenting further on the process," Thompson said.
Traveling with President Bush in Africa, White House press secretary Dana Perino said it was important that the election instill confidence among the Pakistani people.
"For many weeks, almost months now, since the announcement that there would be elections on Feb. 18th, what we have encouraged is for people to be able to express their vote freely, and for this election to inspire confidence in people about their government," she said in Kigali, Rwanda.
In Islamabad, Pakistan's ruling party conceded defeat after opposition parties routed Musharraf allies in the parliamentary elections. The results cast doubt on the political future of Musharraf, who was re-elected to a five-year term last October in a controversial parliamentary ballot.
By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer
18 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration said Tuesday that while Pakistan's election was a step toward restoring democracy in the key U.S. anti-terror ally, it is holding off on a definitive assessment until final results are in.
With ruling party conceding defeat in Monday's vote, the State Department said Tuesday it was "pleased" that the election, which was postponed from January after the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, had come off relatively peacefully and without major apparent fraud.
"This is an important step on the path towards an elected, civilian democracy that reflects the choices of the Pakistani people," said Nicole Thompson, a department spokeswoman. "We and others in the international community have stressed the importance of having as free, fair and transparent an election process as possible."
She noted there were numerous international and independent local election monitors who had yet to offer reports on the voting process, and she declined further comment until they had spoken and the final official tally is released.
"We will wait for the final election results and the chance to review the monitoring groups' reports before commenting further on the process," Thompson said.
Traveling with President Bush in Africa, White House press secretary Dana Perino said it was important that the election instill confidence among the Pakistani people.
"For many weeks, almost months now, since the announcement that there would be elections on Feb. 18th, what we have encouraged is for people to be able to express their vote freely, and for this election to inspire confidence in people about their government," she said in Kigali, Rwanda.
In Islamabad, Pakistan's ruling party conceded defeat after opposition parties routed Musharraf allies in the parliamentary elections. The results cast doubt on the political future of Musharraf, who was re-elected to a five-year term last October in a controversial parliamentary ballot.
Spring Onion
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Pakistan's ruling party concedes defeat
By MATTHEW PENNINGTON, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 55 minutes ago
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan's ruling party conceded defeat Tuesday after opposition parties routed allies of President Pervez Musharraf in parliamentary elections that could threaten the rule of America's close ally in the war on terror.
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Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who was ousted in Musharraf's 1999 coup, suggested that the Pakistani president should listen to the "verdict" of the people in the Monday balloting and step down.
Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, head of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, 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 Musharraf, who was re-elected to a five-year term last October in a controversial parliamentary ballot.
The private Geo TV network said the party of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and another group led by ex-premier Nawaz Sharif had so far won 153 seats, more than half of the 272-seat National Assembly.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Q party was a distant third with 38 seats. A ream of party stalwarts and former Cabinet ministers lost in their constituencies.
Final results were not expected before Tuesday evening, but the election's outcome appeared to be a stinging public verdict on 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.
Sharif reminded reporters Tuesday in Lahore that Musharraf had said he would step down when the people wanted him to do so.
"And now people have given their verdict," Sharif said, adding that political parties should "work together to get rid of dictatorship."
With the support of smaller groups and independent candidates, the opposition could gain the two-thirds majority in parliament needed to impeach Musharraf, who has angered many Pakistanis by allying the country with Washington in 2001 to fight al-Qaida and the Taliban after the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.
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.
Sharif has been especially outspoken in demanding that 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 Musharraf's re-election last October was constitutional.
If the opposition falls short of enough votes to remove Musharraf, the new government could reinstate the Supreme Court justices and ask them to declare the October election invalid.
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.
Sen. Joseph Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and one of several U.S. lawmakers who observed the election, said Tuesday the results mean the United States can shift its Pakistan policy.
"This is an opportunity for us to move from a policy that has been focused on a personality to one based on an entire people," Biden said, adding that Washington should help democracy take deeper root in Pakistan.
The PML-Q said it accepted the results, but Pervaiz Elahi, the party's president, noted that the party had stood by Musharraf for five years.
"We respect him, and we are still with him," Elahi, the outgoing chief minister of Punjab province, told Geo TV on Tuesday.
The results could have far-reaching implications for the U.S.-led war on terror, especially Pakistani military operations against al-Qaida and Taliban-style militants in border areas of the northwest. Sharif and others have called for dialogue with the extremists and have criticized military operations in the area because of their impact on civilians.
Religious parties 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 U.S.-led invasion to topple the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Afrasiab Khattak, a leading opposition politician from the northwest, 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."
The Awami National Party, a Pashtun nationalist group, was leading in the northwest with 30 of the 99 contested assembly seats while Bhutto's party was trailing second with 15. The party of pro-Taliban cleric, Maulana Fazl-ur Rehman, won only eight seats, according to a tally reported by the Geo TV station.
In Karachi, the Pakistani stock market rose 2.15 percent to 14,669.87 points and the rupee gained against the U.S. dollar. Traders said the market was reacting positively because the election was generally peaceful.
Although fear and apathy kept millions of voters at home Monday, 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 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 Dec. 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 percent and Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N party with 27 percent. The PML-Q was third with 14 percent.
The Election Commission had results for 124 seats, with Sharif's party holding 30 percent, Bhutto's party 27 percent and the PML-Q 12 percent.
Several close political allies of 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.
___
By MATTHEW PENNINGTON, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 55 minutes ago
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan's ruling party conceded defeat Tuesday after opposition parties routed allies of President Pervez Musharraf in parliamentary elections that could threaten the rule of America's close ally in the war on terror.
ADVERTISEMENT
Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who was ousted in Musharraf's 1999 coup, suggested that the Pakistani president should listen to the "verdict" of the people in the Monday balloting and step down.
Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, head of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, 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 Musharraf, who was re-elected to a five-year term last October in a controversial parliamentary ballot.
The private Geo TV network said the party of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and another group led by ex-premier Nawaz Sharif had so far won 153 seats, more than half of the 272-seat National Assembly.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Q party was a distant third with 38 seats. A ream of party stalwarts and former Cabinet ministers lost in their constituencies.
Final results were not expected before Tuesday evening, but the election's outcome appeared to be a stinging public verdict on 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.
Sharif reminded reporters Tuesday in Lahore that Musharraf had said he would step down when the people wanted him to do so.
"And now people have given their verdict," Sharif said, adding that political parties should "work together to get rid of dictatorship."
With the support of smaller groups and independent candidates, the opposition could gain the two-thirds majority in parliament needed to impeach Musharraf, who has angered many Pakistanis by allying the country with Washington in 2001 to fight al-Qaida and the Taliban after the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.
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.
Sharif has been especially outspoken in demanding that 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 Musharraf's re-election last October was constitutional.
If the opposition falls short of enough votes to remove Musharraf, the new government could reinstate the Supreme Court justices and ask them to declare the October election invalid.
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.
Sen. Joseph Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and one of several U.S. lawmakers who observed the election, said Tuesday the results mean the United States can shift its Pakistan policy.
"This is an opportunity for us to move from a policy that has been focused on a personality to one based on an entire people," Biden said, adding that Washington should help democracy take deeper root in Pakistan.
The PML-Q said it accepted the results, but Pervaiz Elahi, the party's president, noted that the party had stood by Musharraf for five years.
"We respect him, and we are still with him," Elahi, the outgoing chief minister of Punjab province, told Geo TV on Tuesday.
The results could have far-reaching implications for the U.S.-led war on terror, especially Pakistani military operations against al-Qaida and Taliban-style militants in border areas of the northwest. Sharif and others have called for dialogue with the extremists and have criticized military operations in the area because of their impact on civilians.
Religious parties 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 U.S.-led invasion to topple the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Afrasiab Khattak, a leading opposition politician from the northwest, 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."
The Awami National Party, a Pashtun nationalist group, was leading in the northwest with 30 of the 99 contested assembly seats while Bhutto's party was trailing second with 15. The party of pro-Taliban cleric, Maulana Fazl-ur Rehman, won only eight seats, according to a tally reported by the Geo TV station.
In Karachi, the Pakistani stock market rose 2.15 percent to 14,669.87 points and the rupee gained against the U.S. dollar. Traders said the market was reacting positively because the election was generally peaceful.
Although fear and apathy kept millions of voters at home Monday, 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 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 Dec. 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 percent and Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N party with 27 percent. The PML-Q was third with 14 percent.
The Election Commission had results for 124 seats, with Sharif's party holding 30 percent, Bhutto's party 27 percent and the PML-Q 12 percent.
Several close political allies of 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.
___
IceCold
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Waisa it amazes me kah hum sa zayda america ko pata nahi kyn aag lagi hui thi? I guess since Musharraf started to distance himself from the US, US as always decided " Its time to change the government in pakistan"
asaad-ul-islam
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you should read ahmed quraishi and zaid hamid's articles. they give a detailed analysis of what is most likely happening in pakistan. however, ahmed quraishi could be a bit more careful in writing his articles, sometimes he does go out of hand.
Spring Onion
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Icey US has never been consistant in its policies and that is the biggest dilema.
The distrust which has been created by US policy makers and successive governments with regard to using Pakistan for its proxies and then dumping it time and again is the biggest factor that contribut to anti-US sentiments which also flushes the good work US has been doing recently in social sectors in Pakistan.
I believe US has to change this attitiude and rather focus on long-term strategic ties or it should dump Pakistan once for all and make long-term alliance with India or someone else.
That would be good for US and Pakistan but this short-term US love for Pakistan for incidental gains is gonna harm US and Pakistan more.
dabong1
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yara dabong who is this Shafi
Nawaaz Sharif.....shafi is my nickname for him....makes it sound as if where friends.
dabong1
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Are you saying that in a referendum the people would win a name change?
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solid snake
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US senators say Pakistan polls credible by Masroor Gilani
33 minutes ago
A team of US senators who monitored Pakistan's parliamentary elections said Tuesday the vote was credible and legitimate, representing a historic moment for the country.
Senators John Kerry, a former US presidential candidate, Joseph Biden and Chuck Hagel observed the vote held Monday in which President Pervez Musharraf's allies were facing a rout, according to unofficial results.
Kerry said that "even if the election was not meeting the highest standard," it "meets the basic threshold of credibility and legitimacy in the eyes of the Pakistani people" as well as observers.
Opposition figures had alleged massive rigging in the run-up to the polls in favour of the Pakistan Muslim-Q party that supports Musharraf, a key ally in the US-led "war on terror."
In Washington, the State Department's deputy spokesman Tom Casey told reporters that Pakistan "has taken a step towards the full restoration of democracy."
Kerry said that while it was "not a perfect election, not many have been in many parts of the world."
The US senator said the vote was "truly an historic, decisive moment for Pakistan" and praised people for coming out to cast their ballots despite the threat of violence.
"That unbelievable commitment to change is a dedication to the democratic process and I think it makes a profound statement to the country, to the region and the world," he said.
Biden said Musharraf met with the senators and was prepared to accept the results of the poll.
"He came in and started off the meeting by saying that people have spoken, results are clear and he is prepared to abide by and cooperate with whatever the ensuing coalition government comes forth with," Biden said.
Biden said the result, in which hardline Islamic parties were also almost wiped out, showed that most Pakistanis were moderate.
"It was a credible election. The people of Pakistan seem to have been satisfied with the outcome," he told reporters.
"The bottom line here is that the will of the moderate -- and the vast majority of Pakistani people are moderate and democratic -- is becoming a reality," he added.
Biden also called for a "tripling" in non-military assistance over the next 10 years to build schools, roads, healthcare centres and infrastructure.
Pakistan has received about 10 billion dollars in US aid, most of it military, since Musharraf supported the US-led invasion of Afghanistan and abandoned Pakistan's support for the Taliban regime in 2001.
Hagel said the senators had also met with Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of slain Pakistan People's Party leader Benazir Bhutto, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, a senior member of the PML-Q.
"We found all the representatives and leaders of various parties ready to come together and form the government and work on behalf of the people of Pakistan and we were impressed by that," he said.
US senators say Pakistan polls credible - Yahoo! News
IceCold
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Does it matter now anyways since most of it will be going into the pockets of these thugs. Its better if they keep there aid for themselves, would be helpful in the future.
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