Election 2008: What’s At Stake?

With the results of Pakistan’s election showing clear wins for the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League, the New York Times writes that the elections were a clear loss for President Bush, who staunchly supported the former President Pervez Musharraf. Apparently, the new government might no longer allow NATO forces to intensify secret strikes against suspected terrorists in Pakistan’s northwest frontier using pilotless aircraft. However, the election results in the Northwest Frontier Province tell a very different story, one which might prove to be far more significant in combating the threat of terrorism in the country. The BBC’s M. Ilyas Khan writes that after six years in power, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, the dominant Islamist political party in the region, lost the regional elections, coming a distant third behind the Awami National Party and the Pakistan Peoples Party, both of whom are secular.