Nawaz Sharif yesterday returned to power in Pakistan after a gap of three years with his Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) securing an absolute majority in the National Assembly, inflicting a crushing defeat on deposed prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
Having bagged 116 of the 217 National Assembly seats, the PML appeared to be heading for a two-thirds majority with the support of its allies and others.
Pakistan Muslim League won 184 seats in the 248 member Punjab provincial assembly and 27 seats in the 83-member assembly of North-West Frontier Province.
Bhuttos Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) could win only nine seats in the National Assembly while the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf Party of cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan drew a blank in both the national and provincial assemblies.
Describing his partys victory as unexpected, a jubilant Sharif, 46, asked Benazir Bhutto to accept defeat. I see no reason why she should not accept these results, Sharif said in Lahore.
She must accept the verdict of the people of Pakistan.
These elections were absolutely fair. She is a bad loser and she must accept this defeat, he added.
He said his governments priority would be to attract foreign investment in order to revive the countrys sagging economy.
Sharif, who will become the countrys prime minister for the second time, told reporters that he would seek a working relationship with the opposition and that he would not indulge in politics of confrontation, personal vendetta and revenge.
Benazir Bhutto, 44, claimed that elections were rigged. Her PPP got a drubbing in the polls despite a moderate show in her home state of Sindh in both the national and provincial elections.
Bhutto, who is fighting for her political survival, dismissed the results as engineered.
Imran Khan and Ghinwa Bhutto, widow of Benazirs estranged brother Murtaza Bhutto, suffered humiliating defeats and it was unlikely that their parties, the Tehrik-e-Insaf and PPP (SB) respectively, would cross single digit figures in both national and provincial assemblies.
