XPRESS IN PAKISTAN KING'S PARTY,KINGSIZE DEFEAT

I don't intend to make no dictator strong," said Asif Ali Zardari, co-chair of the Pakistan People's Party on a day when Pakistan's principal opposition party won 87 National Assembly seats and looked set to form a government not just in the Centre but had a formidable presence in all four provinces.

At the time of going to press it had not yet won a simple majority but had won a remarkable 78 seats in the Punjab, 65 in its stronghold in Sindh, an unprecedented seven in Balochistan and 17 in the North West Frontier Province, clearly reaping the rewards of a strong sympathy wave in the aftermath of their leader Benazir Bhutto's assassination to whom Zardari paid fulsome tribute.

The PML (Nawaz) won 101 seats in Punjab and the Awami National Party reclaimed the Frontier, cashing in on an unmistakeable backlash against the rule of President Musharraf.

Together the people peacefully turned the tide against the former military ruler with some 22 former ministers from the pro-Musharraf PML-Quaid bearing the brunt of their anger in a vote that was at once anti-war on terror and anti-mullah. The Islamist parties had boycotted the elections but even the Jamiat Ulema Islam of Maulana Fazlur Rehman was restricted to two seats, cut down to the vote share they originally had before it was bumped up for the 2002 elections by the military.

As Pakistan took its first tentative steps in its transition from military rule to a full-fledged democracy, the focus shifted from electioneering to alliances by the major parties. Top PPP officials held their first Central Executive Committee meeting in Islamabad with Zardari saying afterwards that all major conditions laid down by Nawaz Sharif, including the restoration of the judiciary and impeachment of Musharraf, would be addressed by the new parliament. Observers said this was in the light of the overwhelming powers still held by the president whereby he could dismiss elected governments.

With the PPP still short of a simple majority, the role of independents, of whom 25 have been

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