Musharraf's man likely to be next Prime Minister

Supporters of Pakistan's President, General Pervez Musharraf, were confident last night that their man would be chosen as Prime Minister today, ensuring the troubled country remains under the sway of the army and – by remote control – America.

Pakistan's new parliament, the 342-member National Assembly, is due to meet today to elect a premier after weeks of politicking, bluff, posturing and horse-trading after an election in which no party achieved an outright majority.

The pro-government faction of the Muslim League – the PML-Q, which holds the most seats – was confident its candidate would emerge the victor, providing a long-awaited triumph for General Musharraf, the military and the intelligence services, who brazenly manipulated the election in the run-up to the poll.

Zafarullah Khan Jamali, the candidate for PML-Q, which is known as "the king's party" because of its official backing, told reporters yesterday that he was hoping to win, an ambition that became more realistic this week when his party won a ballot on the parliament's Speaker. Analysts said his majority was likely to be slim and warned it was not a foregone conclusion.

A victory for Mr Jamali, 58, a former chief minister of Baluchistan, would be a relief the Americans, not least because he, like General Musharraf, supports the US hunt for Osama bin Laden and al-Qa'ida operatives on Pakistani soil.

This issue is highly sensitive in Pakistan, where many believe the "war on terror" has failed to identify its targets while alienating and penalising many ordinary Muslims and violating national sover-eignty. America will also be glad that the new civilian government, the first since General Musharraf seized power in 1999, does not include the Islamic bloc led by Fazl-ur-Rahman.

The bloc surprised analysts by coming a strong third in the 10 October elections and winning outright in the militant North West Frontier province, which borders Afghanistan. It campaigned on a strong anti-American ticket, in which it called for US forces to leave Pakistani soil.

The cleric, whose supporters include some strongly pro-Taliban elements, sounded resigned to defeat yesterday. "We have been in opposition in the past and it will not be a new thing for us now," he said.

In a final effort to clinch victory, the Pakistan People's Party – the party of the exiled former prime minister Benazir Bhutto – replaced its expected nominee at the 11th hour and instead fielded a former minister from the Punjab, Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

General Musharraf, who amended the constitution this summer to allow him to sack the parliament and Prime Minister, made an address to the nation in which he reviewed his three years of military rule with the air of a man who was genuinely giving up the reins of power.

The President spoke of economic achievements, his fight against corruption, the preservation of a free press, amid "terrorism, religious extremism as well as the worst sort of economic crisis" in Pakistan.

"I am returning the country, which was entrusted to me, to its elected representatives in a much better state than when I took charge," he said. His critics would agree with some of this, and disagree with more. But they would certainly dispute the phrase "returning the country".