October 07, 2007	Sunday	Ramazan 24, 1428

PESHAWAR, Oct 6: Gen Pervez Musharraf polled 31 of total 34 votes cast in the presidential election in the NWFP assembly building here on Saturday.

The polling began at 9am and continued till 3pm at the newly-built assembly hall. The only polling agent present was Mushataq Ahmed Ghani, representing President Pervez Musharraf. Only 34 MPAs of the 88-member house cast votes as 36 opposition MPAs resigned from the assembly on Friday.

Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Tariq Pervez, the presiding officer for the NWFP assembly, opened the ballot box in the presence of Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani and a group of journalists at 3pm.

He said: “We have received 200 ballot papers from the Election Commission of Pakistan and only 34 MPAs have cast their votes.”

According to unofficial results, he said, Gen Musharraf bagged 31 votes, while Justice (retd) Wajihuddin Ahmed polled only one. Two votes were declared invalid -- one was blank and the other carried double marking. One of the voters cast his vote first for Faryal Talpur and later marked in favour of Gen Musharraf, he added.

Qazi Mohammad Asad Khan, an MPA of the ruling PML, did not come to cast his vote.

It is learnt that four independent MPAs -- Syed Mazhar Ali Qasim, Dr Saleem Khan, Shahzada Mohammad Gustasap Khan and Tahir Bin Yamin -- cast their votes for Gen Musharraf.

Surprisingly, three Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal women MPAs -- Ghaliba Khursheed, Yasmin Khalid and Rukhsana Raz -- were seen sitting in the opposition chambers.

They said they were opposed to the anti-people agenda of the MMA which had set a precedence of segregation in the house. They said they were free to vote on the call of their consciences.

“We are here to cast our votes. We will not disclose to whom we are going to vote,” said Rukhsana Raz.

Yasmin Khalid, a Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam MPA from Manshera, said the MMA government had victimised her husband, Khalid Khan, on petty charges.

Ms Rukhsana, whose husband Raz Mohammad Khan was manhandled at the assembly gate last year, said that thrashing of her husband was an insult to her. She said neither the speaker nor the government had tried to redress her complaint.

Two more MMA dissidents -- Ibrahim Khan Qasmi and former deputy speaker Ikramullah Shahid -- also joined hands with the opposition and voted for Gen Musharraf.

Syed Qalb-i-Hasan, a dissident of the Awami National Party, cast his vote for President Musharraf.