- Proposed five-party electoral platform seems an anomaly
Religious parties in Pakistan present an inexplicable paradox. With support mostly from the seminaries under their control, they can project street power for a while at selected points but despite the deep religiosity of people, these parties have proved pathetic failures in translating it into corresponding electoral success. The religious parties only flourish under dictators like Generals Zia ul Haq and Pervez Musharraf. The original MMA was an alliance of six parties. It has recently diminished by one with the trek of JUI-S’s Maulana Samiul Haq to the PTI camp. The alliance however seeks to repeat its 2002 success in the 2018 general elections, despite being inwardly divided and an external environment which does not guarantee them the familiar tutelage and lop-sided playing rules conducive to their political prosperity.
The first differentiation lies in the fact that of the five component MMA parties, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (F), Jamaat-i-Islami, Jamaat Ahle Hadith, Tehreek-i-Islami and Jamiat-i-Ulema–i-Pakistan, the latter two are not represented in Parliament at all. Allama Sajid Mir of JAH the lone Senator from his party, owes this position to the support of PML-N. The JI has suffered heavy defeats in recent by-elections, being surpassed in votes even by Muslim Milli League and Tehreek-e-Labaik, and this appears a major catalyst for its rejoining the alliance it left acrimoniously in 2007. The split came as JUI-F leader, a shrewd political operator, somehow always ended up on the winning side with ministerial rank and other perks. The JUI-F traditionally supports the government (any government) till the latter’s last breath before performing a perfect somersault towards the victors.
The JI is in a precarious ruling coalition in KP with the JUI-F leaders’ hated rival, PTI’s Imran Khan. On the FATA-KP merger also, the two have diametrically opposite positions, with JUI-F dead against and JI all out for it. The omens do not augur well for a truly unified electoral alliance. Perhaps the one-month window left before the hoped for union was necessitated precisely by these differences.
