WASHINGTON, Feb 25: The Senate election was another step towards the full restoration of democracy in Pakistan, a State Department official told Dawn on Tuesday.

He said that the United States government was “generally satisfied” with the democratic process initiated by President Gen Pervez Musharraf and hoped that it would lead to the full restoration of democracy.

Asked what does the US mean when it calls for the full restoration of democracy, the official said: “That’s for the people of Pakistan to determine what’s full democracy for them. As far as we know, the Pakistanis are not calling it the last thing that’s going to be happening.”

The American media noted that “the party of Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali rolled to victory in the first round of voting in Senate elections”.

The ABC news reported that although “the hard-line Islamic alliance (MMA)” failed to seize the Senate, it fared well in the elections, capturing 18 seats in the Upper House.

“The race pitted Jamali’s centrist faction against several religious and ethnic parties as well as allies of former prime ministers, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif,” observed New York’s Newsday newspaper.

The Austin American Statesman observed that the “failure to get leadership in the Senate would make it difficult for Jamali to push through his legislative agenda”.