Thanks to the US war on Afghanistan (a non-nuclear state), Islamists are now poised to take power in Pakistan (a nuclear state), in whose tribal areas a number of Al Qaeda members deserting Afghanistan are said to have found refuge:
***** Islamists on brink of power in Pakistan
Washington fears instability in key partner as Benazir Bhutto and party of clerics join coalition of opposites
Luke Harding, south Asia correspondent Wednesday November 6, 2002 The Guardian
An Islamist cleric with Taliban sympathies was last night poised to become Pakistan's next prime minister after the country's religious groups agreed to form a coalition government with an alliance dominated by Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's party.
In a move that will deeply alarm Washington, Maulana Fazlur Rehman - once described as an over-fed cleric in plush turban and sunglasses - emerged as the coalition's candidate for prime minister.
Mr Rehman, 49, heads the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal alliance of six religious groups that did unexpectedly well in last month's general election in which no party emerged with an overall majority.
He was locked up last year after denouncing America's war in Afghanistan and wants all US bases in Pakistan to be closed down.
A faction of the Pakistan Muslim League, the PML (Q), which supports the country's military president general Pervez Musharraf won the biggest number of seats in the new assembly and had been expected to form the next government.
A spokesman for the party insisted yesterday that it would still form the next administration. But the claim increasingly lacks credibility.
Last night, western observers were coming to terms with the fact that a man who once called on his followers to wage a "holy war", against President Bush could soon become prime minister of the world's newest nuclear power....
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,834259,00.html> ***** -- Yoshie
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