President Bush has pinned a lot of America's hopes in winning the Afghani war upon President Musharraf of Pakistan. As the results of the parliamentary election in Pakistan come in, it looks like that may have been a major mistake. Musharraf has shown that he cannot control the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and now it looks like he won't even be able to control what happens in the rest of Pakistan.
Musharraf has suffered a crushing defeat in the parliamentary election. In fact, nearly all of the leaders of his party, including the party leader, have been defeated. It looks like the party may be able to hold on to only 20-30 seats in the 272-member national assembly.
Meanwhile, both of the major parties opposing Musharraf seem to be doing very well. The party of Benazir Bhutto who was killed recently, the Pakistan People's Party, will win about 110 seats. The party of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan Muslim League-N, will win around 100 seats.
This will make it very hard for Musharraf to rule in Pakistan -- maybe impossible. In fact, there are some who believe the new parliament may even try to remove Musharraf from office.
This also has to be seen as a rebuff to the policies of the Bush administration. Everyone inside and outside of Pakistan knew that Musharraf was the chief proponent of Bush's policies in that part of the world.
Even if he is able to hang on to the presidency, it is unlikely that Musharraf will be able further Bush's goals for the reason. Musharraf is now even more of a "lame duck" than Bush himself.
What does this mean for Afghanistan? Only time will tell. But right now, it doesn't look too good.
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