This might be the moment for Musharraf’s western backers to help him understand that annulment or alteration of the election results will only plunge Pakistan deeper into chaos.

Pakistan already faces an Al-Qaeda backed insurgency along its border with Afghanistan, which is spilling into other parts of the country. Any attempt by Musharraf to insist on retaining absolute power, rather than allowing opposition leaders Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari to return Pakistan to normal constitutional governance would only anger the vast majority of Pakistanis who have just voted for moderate anti-terrorist parties. The ensuing chaos could strengthen the violent Islamist insurgents.

Musharraf was not on the ballot on Monday but the election was all about his fate, and that of Pakistan. Last year, he had got himself ‘elected’ president by Pakistan’s outgoing parliament, itself chosen through a dubious election in 2002, and fired 60 per cent of superior court judges to forestall judicial review of the presidential election.

Election results show that Pakistan’s two major opposition parties, the pro-western centre-left Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and the centre-right Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), together have secured an outright majority in the National Assembly and Musharraf’s allies have been wiped out. Even if he remains president, he would no longer remain the most powerful man in Pakistan.

Apart from failing in combating terrorism, Musharraf’s government has squandered goodwill through its arbitrary actions against the political opposition and judiciary. The economic achievements of the last eight years have benefitted only a small sliver of the country’s 160 million people.

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