Islamists parties face heavy losses in Pakistan vote: state TV

Pakistan’s main alliance of Islamist parties faced heavy losses on Tuesday, according to early results from parliamentary elections five years after they seized political control in a key province bordering Afghanistan.
The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal alliance was the third-largest grouping in the previous parliament with 50 seats. But they had won just two seats out of 140 counted in unofficial early results announced by state run television on Tuesday, the day after the ballot in Pakistan. The alliance was formed in 2002. It won control of the sensitive North West Frontier Province on the back of fierce anti-US sentiment after the US-led overthrow of the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan in late 2001. “It is a clear verdict by the people against those who use religion as a tool to gain political clout,” a senior government official told AFP.
According to the unofficial results, alliance leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman, was defeated in his home town of Dera Ismail Khan, the constituency he previously held.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman, opposition leader in the previous assembly, won another seat in neighbouring Bannu district, according to state television.
Under national election laws, a candidate can contest a number of seats but can only hold one. The alliance split before the elections after one major party, Jamaat-e-Islami, announced a boycott, leaving Rehman’s Jamiat-Ulema-e-Islam (JUIF) to take part.
The alliance’s success in the 2002 elections raised international fears about the growing influence of religious parties in the politics of Pakistan.