Early results show opposition parties have made "big gains" in elections that could determine the future of President Pervez Musharraf, the former ruling party and officials said Tuesday.
The parties of former premier Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto opened up a lead over the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Q after Monday's crucial parliamentary polls, they said.
PML-Q president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, one of Musharraf's closest political allies, had lost his parliamentary seats in Punjab, a senior party official and an electoral official added. The results leave Musharraf's future in the balance, as a parliament packed with his enemies could weaken him or even leave him open to impeachment.
"Early results show that there is a big gain for the Pakistan Muslim League of Nawaz Sharif (PML-N)," said PML-Q spokesman Tariq Azeem, the deputy information minister in the government which served out its five-year term in November. "If the results are confirmed we will play the part of the opposition as effectively as we can," he said.
The elections were the key final step in Pakistan's transition to civilian democracy after eight years of military rule and the results appear to dispel opposition fears that the polls would be massively rigged.
Azeem added: "We congratulate Nawaz Sharif for an excellent performance by his party and we also congratulate Asif Ali Zardari," the head of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP).
A party official said on condition of anonymity: "The results are shocking but unfortunately we are losing and the Nawaz Sharif factor has played a very big role in our defeat." Government officials confirmed the voting trend, although official results have only just started trickling in and full details were not expected until late Tuesday or early Wednesday.
"Preliminary results indicate both the PPP and PML-N are ahead of PML-Q in Punjab," a top provincial official told AFP. A senior election commission official admitted that the results were "not very encouraging for the former ruling party and the PPP and the PML-N were leading the contest in early results in Punjab province."