Reply #26: Musharraf damned near has the Mullahs running the whole country now [View All]

ISLAMABAD AND NOWSHEHRA, PAKISTAN - Pakistan's masses have sent a clear signal of simmering resentment over the US war on terror which is playing out in their own backyard.

The Muttahida Maklis-i-Amal (MMA) – an alliance of five fundamentalist Islamic parties that opposes the US hunt for Al Qaeda terrorists here and wants to impose strict sharia or Muslim law – surpassed even the wildest of expectations in last Thursday's general elections. The MMA swept the vote in two provinces bordering Afghanistan, Baluchistan and Northwest Frontier Province, and made significant gains nationwide to become the third largest political block in the 342-seat National Assembly.

Pakistan's fundamentalist parties have never won more than 10 percent of the vote in past elections. Their remarkable showing this time bodes ill for continued US-Pakistan operations in the tribal belt that borders Afghanistan, and may indicate that Pakistan as a whole is becoming more extremist, say analysts.

"It gives the sense that this is an enterprise that is going somewhere," says Abbas Rashid, a respected political columnist here. "Today they take the frontier. Tomorrow, who knows?"

President Pervez Musharraf, the general who took power in a bloodless coup in 1999 and imposed military rule, has heralded the Oct. 10 polls as a key step in Pakistan's return to democracy. But analysts say Mr. Musharraf opened a political vacuum, which the fundamentalists waltzed into, when he banned major political figures such as ex-Prime Ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif from running.

The moderate general, who is known both personally and politically to oppose extremist Islamic groups, may now be regretting his decision to let the religious parties run, some analysts say.

"He has got the entire frontier now controlled by the Mullahs," says Asfandyar Wali Khan, who was president of the liberal Awami National Party in the Northwest Frontier Province until he resigned after his party's crushing election defeat. "How is Musharraf going to work with them? This is the million dollar question."

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