NOSHERA, PAKISTAN -- He promises a global Islamic revolution, and to expel American forces from the soil that will soon be under his political control. But Qazi Hussain Ahmad, the first-minister-elect of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, is afraid of the T-word.

The T-word, of course, is "Taliban," a label that was immediately affixed to Mr. Ahmad's party, Muttahida Majlise-Amal, when it produced the biggest surprise of Pakistan's election this week, shocking the establishment and upsetting what was supposed to be a two-horse race.

The MMA, which acknowledges some shared roots with Afghanistan's deposed regime, swept to power in two of the country's four provinces, and although votes were still being counted, looked likely to win dozens of the country's 226 assembly seats. That would put it in the surprise position of contending to enter national government as a coalition partner.

Last night, it appeared there would be a hung parliament at the national level, with both former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party and an offshoot of the Pakistan Muslim League that backs President Pervez Musharraf coming up short of a majority. Once results are final this weekend, the two parties will begin courting allies, and the MMA could sit as the kingmaker.

Many consider the results a rebuke to General Musharraf's pro-Washington policy, particularly during the fighting in neighbouring Afghanistan. But the MMA's showing clearly caught Islamabad off guard, and had Western analysts worrying whether the Taliban movement hadn't found a new life in neighbouring Pakistan. Mr. Ahmad isn't sure of the answer.

"We cannot say we are not pro-Taliban," the white-bearded emir said yesterday in an interview at his home. "We cannot say we are not against the American aggression and the chaos they have created in Afghanistan."

Moments later, however, Mr. Ahmad turned on his interviewer, accusing the Western media of trying to paint the MMA as an extension of the Taliban without considering the differences between the two movements. He came close to criticizing Mullah Mohammed Omar's repressive regime, then shied away.

Like the Taliban, the MMA sees the world as divided between the forces of Islam and those who oppose them. Among their members are men and boys who went to Afghanistan last year to join the struggle against American forces, as well as hardened veterans of the Kashmir struggle.

Like the Taliban, the MMA proposes that women fulfill the "roles set out for them in the Koran," as Mr. Ahmad told a rally in Noshera yesterday. In the frontier provinces where the MMA had the bulk of its success, women wear the head-to-toe burqa. Tribal leaders excluded women from voting in Thursday's election.

"This is a revolution," Mr. Ahmad crowed after the results came in. "We will not allow American bases on our land, nor will we let [in] the American system or American culture."

But his movement's differences with the Taliban are as striking as its similarities. Most important, the MMA is actually a grouping of six separate Islamic parties that came together to oppose Pakistani-U.S. co-operation. They have won their newfound power in Balochistan and the North West Frontier Province at the ballot box; the Taliban won at gunpoint.

The party perhaps might be best described as Taliban Lite. While the MMA and the Taliban speak much the same language about creating a pure Islamic society clean of the decadence and corruption in the rest of the world, Mr. Ahmad is quick to add an important caveat: He says he plans to do it all within the bounds of Pakistan's fairly liberal constitution.

How that squares with his party's determination to end Islamabad's participation in the U.S.-led conflict remains to be seen.

But perhaps the clearest difference is Mr. Ahmad himself. Where the Taliban had the reclusive and uneducated Mr. Omar, the MMA has Mr. Ahmad, a genial, media-friendly face with a master's degree in geography from the University of Peshawar. He speaks perfect English, as well as five other languages.

Mr. Omar refused to give media interviews and banned photography throughout Afghanistan. But Mr. Ahmad was quick to invite a reporter into his home yesterday. The only blips in his hospitality came when he was forced to interrupt the interview to deal with his constantly ringing cellphone.

Nonetheless, the question remains whether his openness to a Western stranger -- as well as his acceptance of democracy and the Pakistani constitution -- are shared by his followers. It was clear by the end of the interview that his emotional defence of the Taliban was designed mainly to please the crowd of listeners who wandered in and out of the room during the interview.

"You must realize that I cannot criticize [the Taliban] here," he whispered conspiratorially as we exchanged farewells.