PAKISTAN VOTES, HARRYZZZ REPORTS - LIVE FROM ISLAMABAD

I've left, on Saturday, Lebanon and arrived in Pakistan. This because there are extremely important elections taking place, today, Monday February 18th.

Will the PPP, the party of former PM Benazir Bhutto, secure a landslide victory today after Benazir was killed on December 27th last year?

Will the same PPP accept the results in case they do NOT win that same majority?

Will president Pervez Musharraf (and his PML-Q party) survive these elections?

Will taliban/Al Qaeda-elements be able to launch any spectacular attacks?

And, last but not least, how will the religious parties react to their CERTAIN LOSS during these elections? Because everybody might be talking about the, so called, Talibanization of Pakistan. This is, of course, not true. Yes, taliban/Qaeda militants are getting more and more bold and are stepping up their attacks, but the taliban/qaeda political parties are - big time - loosing support here. Pakistan's main problem seems to be terrorism, not talibanization.

These are, most probably, Pakistan's most important elections since the country was created, in 1947.

Voting has just started, around 11 minutes ago. As it is now 04.00 in the morning in Europe and 22.00 in the US (still Sunday), it looks like a beautiful, sunny Monday morning here in the capital Islamabad.

I'll try to post some updates today here on Harryzzz as I'll be driving around Islamabad and Rawalpindi...

Harald Doornbos