Pakistan Polls Over: Musharraf Sings A New Tune
President Pervez Musharraf has told Jemima Khan in an interview published in the British daily The Independent that: “My role as a president is simply the checks and balances, the seatbelts… a sort of father figure to the prime minister, but I won’t have to see him for weeks.” Jemima is the ex-wife of Pakistani politician/famous cricketer Imran Khan.
“Talking peace, Musharraf said he would work with ‘everyone’, asserting that the country must move from the current politics of confrontation to a policy of reconciliation.” In the Indian subcontinent they would say: “Sau chuhe khaake billi Haj ko chali” (After feasting on hundreds of mice the cat embarks on a pilgrimage.)
Agencies report that the polling was largely peaceful in most parts of the country, barring minor incidents of clashes among the supporters of contesting parties, according to Pakistan’s Election Commission officials.
Over 81 million voters were eligible to take part in the polling in Pakistan’s four provinces of Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan and North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and seven restive tribal agencies bordering Afghanistan to choose 272 members of the National Assembly or lower house of Parliament and 728 members of provincial assemblies for a five-year term.
