High anxiety for Musharraf stalwart in Pakistan vote

By Simon Cameron-Moore

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (Reuters) - Sheikh Rashid Ahmed has fought seven Pakistan elections before and won, but the former government spokesman was under no illusions that his back was against the wall going into the eighth on Monday.

"This is the toughest," said Ahmed, one of the most high-profile members of the last government, as he chomped anxiously on a cigar before making a short walk from his mansion to a polling station in Rawalpindi.

Ahmed's loyalty to President Pervez Musharraf earned him the post of information minister and latterly the railways portfolio.

Musharraf's military coup in 1999 sundered the Pakistan Muslim League, and Ahmed went with the wing that lined up behind the general and kept the PML name.

The party led by Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister Musharraf overthrew, and other opposition candidates were threatening to take Ahmed's seat from him.

The PML government, along with Musharraf, is being blamed for a host of problems.

Ahmed said the government had been side-swiped by wheat, flour, edible oil and gas shortages and mounting hardships faced by a majority of people, despite rapid economic growth.

And there remained widespread anger over the storming of the Red Mosque in Islamabad to crush an armed student movement last July in which more than 100 died.

Persuading people that the army's assault on mosque had been necessary was a hard sell, Ahmed said.

The former minister expected the PML to win a "respectable" number of seats, but he lacked his usual ebullience when talking about the possible outcome of the vote.

"HUNG PARLIAMENT"

"It's the first time I've had no idea," Ahmed said. "People are quite silent. So they will give the decision inside. In the past they gave their decision outside."

Before setting out, Ahmed declared the one thing he was sure of: "It will be a hung parliament."

Like several political heavy-hitters, Ahmed has hedged his bets by contesting two seats, both in Rawalpindi, the garrison town next door to the capital where opposition leader and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated on December 27.

Under Pakistan's quirky election rules candidates can contest in several constituencies, but they can only hold onto one, while the others are thrown open for a by-election within 60 days.