By Xinhua
Islamabad : Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf was unofficially declared successful in the presidential elections on Saturday, the state-run PTV channel reported.
The results of the poll from the National Assembly, Senate and four provincial assemblies showed that Musharraf achieved a crushing victory in the presidential elections.
Musharraf secured 252 votes in the National Assembly and Senate out of a total of 442 members of the two houses, according to Chief Election Commissioner Mohammad Farooq.
A total of 257 votes were polled by the Senators and Members of the National Assembly at the parliament House in Islamabad. Among the 257 votes, 252 votes went to Musharraf and two to retired judge Wajihuddin Ahmed, with three declared invalid.
In the 371-seat Punjab Assembly, 257 members cast their votes and 253 of them polled their votes in favor of Musharraf. Three votes went to Wajihuddin and one was declared invalid.
In the 168-seat Sindh Assembly, Musharraf got all the 104 votes cast.
In the 124-seat assembly in North West Frontier Province, 34 votes were polled and 31 cast their votes in favor of Musharraf and one vote went to Wajihuddin with two votes declared invalid.
In the 65-member Balochistan Assembly, all the 33 votes were cast in favor of Musharraf.
“The votes polled for President Pervez Musharraf clearly show that he is absolute and clear winner even if there were no resignations and abstentions,” Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said at a news conference.
Aziz also said the success of Musharraf in presidential elections proved that the people wanted his leadership and vision to take Pakistan on way to progress.
The opposition parties alliance All Parties Democratic Movement(APDM), which pulled some 200 of its parliamentarians out of the National and Provincial Assemblies, called on the nation to strike in protest of Musharraf’s victory. The strike call received good response in Balochistan and parts of NWFP. However, people in other parts of the country turned a deaf ear to APDM’s call.
The Supreme Court has stopped the Election Commission from officially announcing the result of the elections, citing the pending petitions filed by two presidential candidates, Wajihuddin Ahmed and the acting chief of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Makhdoom Mohammad Amin Faheem.
Wajihuddin and Amin Faheem challenged in the Supreme Court that Musharraf was not qualified to contest the presidential elections in uniform and asked to stay the elections.
The Supreme Court issued a notice on Friday that it would resume hearing the petitions on Oct. 17. The notice also said that the final notification about the elections result should not be announced before a verdict was given by the Supreme Court.
A senior government official confirmed on Saturday that Musharraf would keep his word and doff the uniform before Nov. 15.
The major opposition PPP led by former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto opted to abstain from the voting process as a means of protest against Musharraf’s reelection in uniform.
Musharraf signed and promulgated the National Reconciliation Ordinance on Friday, granting amnesty to Benazir Bhutto, who, according to local TV channel DAWN NEWS, was facing five corruption charges. However, the exiled former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was not a beneficiary of the ordinance.
Benazir Bhutto is expected to return to Pakistan on Oct. 18 as scheduled to take part in the general elections likely due in January 2008.