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US hails Pak poll results, shrugs off hardliners' victory

T V Parasuram in Washington

The United States has welcomed the results of the Pakistan general election as 'an important milestone in the country's ongoing transition to democracy', but rejected the victory of hardliners as having anything to do with President Pervez Musharraf's ties with Washington.

The initial impression from the observers is that voting proceeded in an orderly fashion despite the concerns that they had expressed about the pre-election environment, state department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Friday.

Asked if the victory of hardliners was a reaction to Musharraf's alliance with the US, Boucher said, "Attitudes towards the US were one of the factors probably in the voting, but I don't know that we did anything that we could say has failed at this point."

"Let us not assume that everything that happens in the world is a failure of the US. I reject that opinion from the start," he said.

Boucher said the alliance of religious parties who did well in Baluchistan and Northwest Frontier Province will be 'one of the several parties' in Parliament.

"We think the Pakistani people and the government have already demonstrated their strong opposition to terrorism and extremism, and their desire to move their society in a more moderate and stable direction. We look forward to working with them on that and hope all the parties will be committed to moving in that direction," he said.

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