UK hails ‘historic 
turning point’ for 
Pakistan

Foreign Office Minister Baroness Warsi said Saturday’s poll marked a historic turning point for Pakistan as almost 60 per cent of voters took part in a broadly clean election.

She acknowledged questions over the background of Nawaz Sharif, who looked set to return to power and form a government with his Pakistan Muslim League-N party, but said this was a function of Pakistan’s troubled, military-dominated past.

“Almost any leader of that party has at some point spent time in jail. Tragically the country has spent 33 years under military rule, military leaders of the main political parties have spent time outside of Pakistan,” she told the Sky News Murnaghan programme.

“But let’s go back to the positives in this particular election.

“This is probably one of the most sound elections which has occurred to date, the electoral roll was probably one of the cleanest there has been, the army did not make any attempts to take over.

“Despite the threats of extremism and terrorism, people turned out to vote. You saw a large vote within the middle classes, many, many women turned out to vote – these are all positive and I think once the new government is formed it should give them a solid base with which to start dealing with the very serious challenges Pakistan faces.”

Mr Sharif had previously been ousted by a coup and exiled abroad before returning to Pakistan in 2007 to rebuild his political powerbase.

Results yesterday were unclear as to whether the Pakistan Muslim League-N had secured enough votes for an outright majority or would need to seek a coalition partner.

But the Pakistan People’s Party, headed by former cricketer Imran Khan, was significantly behind in second place in the race to lead the country for the next five years.

The election was marred by violence in the port city of Karachi, the north west and in the south-western province of Baluchistan. At least 29 people died in election-related attacks. But turnout still reached almost 60 per cent, far higher than the 44 per cent of voters who participated in 2008.