Pakistan Views

Malik Azmat of PP won from NA-34, lower Dir with 37295 votes, followed by Muhammad Ayub Khan of ANP, who got 25679 votes, according to unofficial results.
SA Qadri of MQM was held successful from NA-24, Karachi with 93617 votes, followed by Zarbali Syed of ANP who got 36236 votes.
From NA-256 Karachi-13, Iqbal Muhammad Ali Khan of Muttahida Qaumi Moment (MQM) secured 123491 votes and won whereas Mirza Maqbool Ahmad of PP was runner up with 23829 votes. MQM candidate Abdul Qadeer Khanzada secured 147892 votes in NA-242 Karachi-4 followed by PP Muhammad Afaq Khan who got 27294.
From NA-61, Chakwal –2 Muhammad Faiz Timman of Muslim League (N) got 91979 votes. Former Chief Minister Punjab Chaudhry Pervez Elahi of Q- League was runner up with 91684 votes.

Chief Election Commissioner, Justice (Retd.) Qazi Muhammad Farooq Monday said the Election Commission of Pakistan fulfilled its duty by holding free, fair and transparent General Elections-2008 across the country in a peaceful environment.
Addressing a jam-packed first press conference hours after the close of polling for election-2008, he lauded the role of media towards maximizing the voters’ participation in the polling process. Qazi Muhammad Farooq, on the occasion, also announced some of the provisional results compiled so far.
To questions regarding the violent incidents on the polling day, he said such incidents occur during elections and however added that these incidents took place outside the polling stations. When asked about the possibility of recounting of votes on the complaints of rigging at some polling stations, Qazi Farooq said decision in this regard will made by the Election Commission. He announced the results of NA-43 and 44 and also of PB-1.
According to the results, independent candidate Shaukatullah won the election from NA-43 FATA-8 with 7428 votes; Syed Akhund Zada, independent, received 6257 votes to return successful from NA-44 FATA-9 while Shafiq Ahmed Khan was declared winner from PB-1 with 6169 votes.

Elections will be viewed as ‘totally discredited’ if the PML-Q is declared victorious, an influential US senator on foreign affairs said on Monday.
Such election results would also trigger riots and raise questions over the stand of the powerful military, said Senator Joseph Biden, who observed polling in Lahore, the second largest city in Pakistan and the country’s political hub.
Biden, a leading voice on international issues for the Democratic Party, said that his initial assessment showed people were encouraged to come out and vote without much violence but ultimately, he pointed out, it would depend on the poll result, whether there was an escalation of violence and how the military would act.
“If PML-Q beats all odds and ends up being the winner here, I think it will be viewed as a totally discredited undertaking,” Biden, the head of the powerful Senate foreign relations committee, told the American broadcasting network CNN.
“And then I think you’ll see some movement in the streets here. And the question will be whether or not the military moves on the population. My overwhelming instinct is the military does not want a confrontation with the population,” he said.
Opinion polls have tipped Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and PML-N to beat the PML-Q.
But opposition leaders allege a campaign of “massive rigging” in favor of PMl-Q and have vowed to hold street protests if the results are fraudulent.
Biden is accompanied by Democratic Senator John Kerry and Republican Senator Chuck Hagel in observing the polls. They will meet Musharraf on Tuesday.

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.

Deputy Convener of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Dr Farooq Sattar defeated Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians candidate Abdul Habib Memon at NA-249 Karachi-XI while leader of Awami National Party (ANP) Asfandyar Wali won at NA-7 Charsadda-1.

According to unofficial results, Asfandyar Wali Khan secured 56,950 votes against his rival candidate Nasir Ahmed Khan who obtained 17,726.

Unidentified armed persons snatched ballot boxes from two polling station of PS-34 and set them on fire, near here on Monday.
The armed persons attacked a polling station in Khariro near Gambat, snatched ballot boxes and papers from polling staff and later torched the polling station.
In another incident, unidentified armed persons attacked a polling station in Malnag Maghan and snatched ballot boxes and papers from the polling staff at gunpoint.
In third incident, notorious criminals attacked Ahmedpur Police Station and filled the ballot boxes with bogus ballot papers. Five workers of PML-F and PPP were injured in a clash at polling station in village Dilawar Khuhro. Clashes also occurred at polling stations in Pir Gudoo, Pir Jandho, Pir-Jo-Goth and Tagar.

Pro-Musharraf ruling PML-Q bigwigs including Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain were defeated by their rivals in home constituencies, the electoral battlefields they have dominated for decades.
Pakistan Peoples Party leader and former commerce minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar has defeated his traditional rival and PML-Q president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain by a margin of over 14,000 votes in Gujrat-2 constituency, hometown of Chaudhry brothers.
Five times winner Sheikh Rashid Ahmed from Rawalpindi was defeated miserably by PML-N’s Hanif Abbasi and Javed Hashmi where he ruled for over two decades. Former speaker national Assembly, Chaudhary Amir Hussain was defeated by a female candidate Firdous Ashiq of PPPP who had recently joined it after developing differences with PML (Q) leadership
Former defence minister Rao Sikandar Iqbal, a closed aide of President Pervez Musharraf too lost his seat to PPPP Sajjadul Hassan by a big margin. PML-Q’s stalwart Hamid Nasir Chatta was defeated by Iftikhar Ahmed Cheema in Gujranwala.
Former opposition in the National Assembly and chief of the JUI-F, Maulana Fazalur Rehman has also lost seat in his native town Dera Ismail Khan and reportedly succeeded winning a National Assembly seat in Bannu.
Faisal Saleh Hayat defeated Syeda Abida Hussain traditional political rival from National Assembly in Jhang with a big number. Umer Khan former vocal state minister and grandson of former dictator, Field Martial Mohammad Ayub Khan also defeated to his rival at his hometown Harripur.
Besides, former federal minister for water and power Liaquat Jotoi, former Commerce Minister Hamayun Akhtar Khan, former Minister for Religious Affairs Ijazul Haq have also lost their seats.

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari left London on Saturday night for Naudero via Karachi to cast his first ever vote at a Naudero polling station on Monday. According to the spokesman of Zardari House Nawabshah, Bilawal will cast his vote in municipal committee No 29, and has been given the vote number 561.
He said that Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari would cast his vote at Nawabshah.

The Meteorological Office has forecast a fair weather with cool night in Karachi on Monday. The minimum temperature is expected to range between 13 to 15 degrees centigrade.

Cool and dry weather is forecast for Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Sukkur and Larkana divisions on Monday.

Central Secretary General of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) Maulana Fazl ur Rehman has stressed the need for holding free, fair and transparent elections, saying impartial polls would have a positive impact on the country’s politics.
“I hope the elections would be fair,” Maulana, who is also the leader of Jamiat Ulema islam (F) told APP here.
Fazl hit out those political parties which have boycotted the elections and said it was imperative for the nation to cast vote.
“Constitution and democracy could only be safeguarded and restored when we go for polls” he said.
Maulana also called for bringing about positive change to involving the masses in political mainstream.
“We will win seats at the federal level, form government in NWFP and show our opponents that we believe in performance,” he added.