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Musharraf rigged the polls: Benazir, Sharief

Attributing the strong showing by Pakistan's hardline religious parties in general elections to the 'fraudulent' poll process of President Pervez Musharraf's government, exiled former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharief questioned the credibility of the election.

Bhutto, whose Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarian was on a neck-and-neck race with Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam supported by Musharraf, expressed serious concern over the strong showing by the Muthahida Majlis-e-Amal, a coalition of six pro-Taliban religious parties, which has won in the North West Frontier Province.

The MMA has emerged as a strong political force in the Baluchistan Assembly and the National Assembly.

"It was because of pre-poll rigging and tampering with the ballot boxes that religious parties have won in Baluchistan and the Frontier Province," Bhutto was quoted as saying by local daily The Nation.

She ruled out any alliance with the MMA to form a government saying there was 'a wide gulf' between the PPPP and the religious parties vis-a-vis their policies.

The MMA is expected to win over 35 seats in the National Assembly.

"The religious right had emerged victorious in the NWFP and Baluchistan because of the marginalisation of mainstream political parties by the military government," Bhutto said.

Sharief, who lives in exile in Jeddah, said the people have rejected lotas [stooges] of the Musharraf government.

The results demonstrated that people have rejected all the amendments prepared in the 'drawing rooms by the advisers of Musharraf to keep away the popular leadership from the masses', he told The Nation over phone.

The PML-Q, a breakaway faction of Sharief's PML, is headed by his previous political aides who defected to Musharraf camp to contest the polls.

Due to government support, PML-Q was expected to emerge the second largest party next to PPPP.

"It was a tragedy that elections in our country had not been fair, free and transparent," Bhutto said.

She said the election results showed that the establishment's dream of putting up a hung Parliament had been fulfilled.

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