Ishaq Khan and the caretaker government of Prime Minister Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi portrayed Ms. Bhutto as an enemy of Islam, a traitor who sold state secrets to neighboring India and an American puppet.

Their actions seemed to cast her as the victim of "kangaroo courts," halted her declining popularity and helped galvanize her party.

But with 95 of the 214 races declared, the right-wing Islamic Democratic Alliance won 51 seats and Ms. Bhutto's populist, center-left Pakistan People's Party and its allies won 19. The rest went to smaller parties and independent candidates.

Unofficial reports indicated her party trailing badly in all four provinces.

Jatoi and two leaders of the Islamic Democratic Alliance -- Nawaz Sharif and Mohammad Khan Junejo -- won their races.

Hours before results began coming in, Ms. Bhutto predicted her party would take 120 seats.

Before voting, she visited her father's grave. Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was overthrown in a bloodless coup in 1977 and was hanged two years later.

Ms. Bhutto repeatedly compared her unceremonious dismissal to his ouster.

She complained that ballot boxes were stuffed and said she would meet party leaders this week to decide whether to call street demonstrations or boycott Parliament.

Jatoi, in a broadcast announcement before results were announced, warned that anyone instigating trouble would be "dealt with a stern hand."

Ms. Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, also ran for two seats and she said he lost both races.

Yesterday's election was the fifth

Fifth Election

since Pakistan was created as a homeland for Moslems in the 1947 partition that ended British colonial rule of the Indian subcontinent.

Nearly 100,000 soldiers, paramilitary troops and police patrolled the most volatile areas yesterday to prevent violence.

The People's Party and three smaller allied parties were pitted against the Islamic Democratic Alliance, a loose-knit coalition of 18 parties united by their dislike for Ms. Bhutto but strained by individual ambitions.

The Western-educated Ms. Bhutto became the first woman leader of a modern Moslem nation in December 1988 following the first free elections in Pakistan after a decade of military rule.