Vote counting got under way on Monday after a lacklustre turnout in Pakistan’s parliamentary elections, which passed off relatively peacefully despite fears of sabotage by Islamic militants. With his future hanging in the balance, President Pervez Musharraf resolved to work with the new civilian government.
Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto will not be allowed to hold a protest procession across Pakistan because it would violate a ban on political rallies imposed under the current state of emergency, a government spokesperson said on Monday. Bhutto was due to leave the eastern city of Lahore on Tuesday morning for the capital, Islamabad.
Health workers rushed to contain an outbreak of acute diarrhoea among hundreds of earthquake survivors at a squalid tent camp, and the Pakistani army appealed to donors on Thursday for more blankets, clothes and food for the coming winter. In Washington, United States President George Bush urged Americans to give more to help quake victims.
New casualty figures from the South Asian earthquake have pushed the death toll to more than 79 000, regional officials said on Wednesday. The new numbers come as two strong aftershocks jolted the devastated region, unleashing landslides and setting off another wave of panic among survivors.
