HOW RELIGIOUS PARTIES FARED IN PAKISTAN ELECTIONS

As many as 12 religious parties participated in the Pakistan elections. Among them, some were already present on the Pakistani political scene, like the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) — an alliance of various religious parties headed by Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s JUI-F and the Jamaat-i-Islami. Others like the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) — led by clerics of the Barelvi sect — were formed just before the 2018 elections.

These parties have managed to get 9.58 per cent of the total votes cast in the Pakistan elections held on July 25. This includes both provincial elections to four states in Pakistan and the federal elections to the National Assembly, Pakistan Parliament’s lower house.

The parties have notched up the highest percentage of votes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where nine parties collectively secured 18.84 per cent of the votes polled.

Balochistan, where the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has had a major impact, represents their second highest tally (16.78 per cent) .

In terms of numbers, the highest number of votes cast for religious parties was in Punjab but this constituted only 7.9 per cent of the overall votes cast in the province. Punjab is the province where Hafiz Saeed’s Lashkar e Tayyaba and Jamaat ud Dawa are the most active. Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek (AAT) is another name for the Milli Muslim League which was denied registration by the ECP over links with the banned Jamaat ud Dawa. AAT won no seats but came at number eight in terms of votes won for the National Assembly.

TLP votes constitute 69 per cent of the total vote to religious parties. In Sind, the performance of religious parties was better. They got around 10 per cent of the popular vote.