PML(N), PPP jointly muster majority in parliamentary polls

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's two main opposition parties PML(N) and PPP on Tuesday bagged a simple majority in the parliamentary elections, threatening the eight-year rule of President Pervez Musharraf.
     
The private Geo TV network said the two parties had so far won 139 seats, more than half of the 272-seat National Assembly.
       
Elections were held for 269 seats and with results out for 227; slain former premier Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's party had won 77.
    
Pakistan Muslim League (N) of Nawaz Sharif, who was ousted by Musharraf in a bloodless coup in 1999, won 62
     
The ruling PML (Q), Musharraf's main, ally suffered a humiliating defeat with just 34 seats. Several of its stalwarts including former premier and party chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, former ministers Khurshid M Kasuri and Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, a close aide of Musharraf, were defeated by their PPP and PML-N opponents.
      
Ahead of the counting, Musharraf, who could face possible impeachment if the opposition secures a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly and unites against him, urged parties to leave "politics of confrontation".
     
"I strongly believe that this politics of confrontation must give the way to politics of reconciliation, not in anyone's personal interest but in the interest of Pakistan," he said.
    
The former general, who doffed uniform last year under intense domestic and international pressure, said he was happy that he had fulfilled his pledge of holding free and fair poll.