Islamic parties surge

Islamabad

Hard-line Islamic parties running on an anti-American platform gained ground in Pakistan’s first elections since Gen. Pervez Musharraf seized power in a 1999 coup. A moderate party supported by Musharraf, the Pakistan Muslim League, came in first with 77 seats, and the reformist Pakistan People’s Party, headed by exiled former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, was second with 62 seats. The most harmonious outcome would be for those two parties to form a government together, but that’s unlikely since Musharraf and Bhutto hate each other. Instead, a group of Islamic parties called Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, which came in third with 50 seats, may be asked to join a coalition government. That prospect worries neighboring Afghanistan. An Afghan government spokesman said the MMA “had provided financial support and fighters to the Taliban in the past.”

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