Islamist parties face drubbing in Pakistan vote

By Zeeshan Haider

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani voters are expected to succeed where President Pervez Musharraf has failed, pushing back the Islamist tide and throwing out of power political clerics governing Pakistan's violent northwest.

"God forbid, I will never vote for mullahs," said Saif-ur-Rehman, a bearded stall owner in Qissa Khawani, a famous bazaar in Peshawar, before rushing for prayers at a mosque in the provincial capital of North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

Parliamentary and provincial assembly polls set for February 18 will take place against the backcloth of a Taliban and al Qaeda campaign to destabilize President Pervez Musharraf.

For all the revulsion over almost-weekly suicide attacks, conservative religious folk of the area have more immediate concerns, like lack of jobs, rising food prices, power outages and gas shortages that left them without heat over the winter.

The mullahs who have held power in NWFP as well as politicians aligned with the unpopular Musharraf have become discredited.

"What have they done for us poor people?" asked Rehman, who sells a traditional black eyeliner used by men and women in the ethnic Pashtun lands of the northwest.

"They have done nothing. Look at this broken road," he scoffed, pointing to a pothole.

Qari Gul Naseeb, NWFP president of the six-party Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), says his Islamist alliance will do better than ever because it is the least corrupt.