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Roadside Bomb Wounds Pakistan Candidate

By admin | February 13, 2008

A roadside bomb exploded Wednesday as a crowd was leaving a political rally in the Swat Valley, killing one man and wounding a candidate for next week’s parliamentary elections, officials said.

Security fears have prompted many candidates to limit campaigning since former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated by a suicide bombing and gun attack after a political rally Dec. 27.

The bomb exploded Wednesday as a crowd was leaving a rally held by the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party, an Islamist group, in the town of Charbagh, policeman Noorul Haq said. Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said one man was killed and three others were wounded, including the candidate.

There are concerns that militants could launch attacks during the Feb. 18 vote, seen as key to Pakistan’s transition to democracy after eight years of military rule under President Pervez Musharraf, a key U.S. ally in the war against terrorism.

But the main fear is a major outbreak of political violence if there are allegations of vote rigging.

On Wednesday, Pakistan’s ruling party said it was confident going into the balloting, despite surveys pointing to a strong victory by Musharraf’s opponents.

Mushahid Hussain, secretary-general of Pakistan Muslim League-Q, said the party has improved education, health care and other public services during the last five years.

“Based on our performance, we are confident that we will win the elections,” Hussain told The Associated Press. “We are in favor of national reconciliation and would like to muster the support of all political forces after the elections to ensure good governance.”

However, a survey released Monday by the U.S. government-funded International Republican Institute showed overwhelming support for the opposition and predicted the ruling party would fare poorly.

The survey said half the Pakistanis polled planned to vote for Bhutto’s party and 22 percent backed a party headed by another ex-premier, Nawaz Sharif. Only 14 percent of those surveyed favored the pro-Musharraf party, the survey said.

The poll of 3,845 adults from urban and rural areas was conducted Jan. 19-29 and has a margin of error of plus or minus about 2 percentage points.

Opposition figures have cited alleged manipulation of voter registration rolls and other irregularities as a sign the vote may be rigged. Government officials deny the allegations.

Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N and Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party used to be bitter rivals but recently agreed to set aside their past differences, vowing to restore democracy.

Bhutto’s husband, Asif Ali Zardari, and Sharif met late Tuesday in Lahore and afterward told reporters they would try to form a coalition government if they win a majority of the seats.

“We will sit together because the country is passing through a dangerous phase, and we can only steer the country out of this crisis together,” Zardari said. “I am conveying this message to the establishment that I will change this system.”

Sharif, who hosted the meeting at his home, said the political, social and economic crisis facing Pakistan had reached the point that “we all have to join hands and save the country from any further deterioration.”

Musharraf seized power in a 1999 coup against Sharif and was re-elected by the former parliament to another five-year term in October. But he needs a strong majority in the new legislature to block any move to impeach him.

Opposition to Musharraf grew after his failed attempt last year to oust the Supreme Court’s chief justice, and the anger intensified when he imposed temporary emergency rule in November and removed Supreme Court judges seen as a challenge to his continued rule.

Also Wednesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Sadiq told reporters that the government had no word on what happened to Pakistan’s ambassador to Afghanistan, Tariq Azizuddin, who disappeared two days ago.

“There is no news at this point,” Pakistani embassy spokesman Mohammad Naeem Khan said in Kabul. “We have not been contacted by anybody yet. We have not received any phone call from any side. Of course, we are very worried.”

The spokesman for Pakistan Taliban militants who have been fighting government forces in the tribal area denied his group was holding the ambassador.

“We have no hand in abduction of the ambassador,” spokesman Maulvi Umer told The Associated Press by telephone.

Police also were looking for three employees of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission who disappeared Monday in the northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan, located in the lawless tribal region that borders Afghanistan.

Local police chief Amir Hamza Mehsud said authorities were unsure whether the two technicians and their driver had been kidnapped.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s military said Wednesday Qit had successfully test-fired a short-range missile capable of carrying a nuclear device. The army’s Strategic Missile Group launched the Ghazanvi missile, which has a range of 180 miles, from an undisclosed location, a statement said.

Pakistan became a declared nuclear power in 1998 by conducting nuclear tests in response to those carried out by neighboring India and test-firing its first missile the same year. Since then, the two countries have routinely tested their missiles, and Wednesday’s launch by Pakistan was the third in recent weeks.

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