By-polls give Pak ruling coalition majority

Pakistan's ruling coalition bagged four national assembly seats and opposition Islamists won three in by-elections that killed three people in poll-related violence, results Thursday showed.

Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali's coalition government can now claim almost 200 seats, boosting its majority from the razor-thin position it held when Jamali was elected by the house in November with 172 votes.

Support for Jamali, from the army-backed Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), rose to 188 in a December 30 confidence vote on a larger wave of floor-crossing by MPs from opposition parties.

Adding to the four seats picked up in Wednesday's by-elections, two victorious independents are expected to back the PML-Q-led coalition.

The far-right religious alliance Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), which scored massive gains in October 10 polls, defeated a ruling party candidate to win a hotly-contested seat in the northern city of Rawalpindi.

Results have yet to be announced in a seat in southern Khairpur district, where three activists of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's opposition Pakistan People's Party were killed.

PPP accused PML-Q workers of firing on its supporters in Khairpur, killing three and injuring two others. Police are investigating.

The party complained of massive rigging and intimidation by ruling parties.

"The PPP was not allowed to freely run its election campaign as its workers and supporters were arrested, their bails denied and their houses raided," parliamentary leader Makhdoom Amin Fahim said in a statement.

"Heavily armed supporters of the PML-Q candidate encircled all the sensitive polling stations, refusing entry to PPP polling agents and PPP voters.

"Armed men were sitting even inside the polling booths forcing the voters to cast votes in favour of the PML-Q candidate."

PPP had boycotted by-elections in all seats except those in its traditional southern stronghold in Sindh province, alleging large-scale rigging.

By-elections were also held in 18 provincial constituencies.

The seats became vacant after lawmakers who won more than one seat in October 10 elections were required to hold on to only one and vacate the rest.

Earlier report says, Pakistani opposition parties on Wednesday alleged widespread rigging by Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali's government in by-elections across the country.

"The entire state machinery is out in the field to engineer victory for the government-backed candidates," said a spokesman for the six-party religious bloc known as Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA).

By-elections were held in 10 national and 18 provincial seats to fill vacancies created after October 10 polls when lawmakers elected on more than one seats were required to retain only one seat and surrender the other.

The by-elections are the first under Jamali's two-month old government, the first civilian administration since President Pervez Musharraf took power in a 1999 army coup.

Jamali's party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), heads a fragile coalition in the 342-seat national assembly and is pinning hopes on favourable results to boost its numbers and cinch a more comfortable majority.