ISLAMABAD – Religious parties in Pakistan have fielded more than 460candidates on the National Assembly seats for the July 25 generalelections, breaking all previous records, a media report said on Sunday.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has issued the final list ofcandidates, according to which, 3,459 candidates will contest on 272general seats of the National Assembly.
Although Jamaat-e-Islami had come up with a long list of candidates in 1970against the then nominees of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party(PPP) and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s Awami League in East (Bangladesh) andWest Pakistan, and Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) had also fieldedcandidates across the country in 2002, the number stands the highest thistime, The Nation reported.
Over 460 aspirants have been fielded separately by MMA, Tehreek-e-LabbaikPakistan, Hafiz Saeed-led JuD’s political wing Milli Muslim League-backedAllah-o-Akbar Tehreek and other small entities, the paper said.
These candidates might play a decisive role in the victory and defeat ofPakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) andPPP candidates on a number of seats.
The results would show total religious vote bank in Pakistan besidesclearly narrating the number of well wishers of each party, defining itspolitical weight and putting it at a bargaining position with mainstreampolitical parties in future elections, the paper said.
The MMA, an alliance of five parties — Jamiat Ulema-e Islam-F (JUI-F),Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan (JUP), Islami Tehreek andMarkazi Jamiat Ahle Hadith — representing all schools of thought (Barelvi,Deobani, Shia and Ahle Hadith), has come up with a list of some 192 pluscandidates on NA seats, mainly focusing on Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) andBalochistan, the paper said.
The MMA has not introduced any candidate on 65 seats of Punjab’s total 141and seven of total 61 of Sindh for different reasons.
“We will not only form government in KP but also emerge powerful parties inBalochistan, Sindh and Punjab. People will elect clean leadership on July25,” said Amirul Azeem, JI’s central leader and MMA candidate in Lahore.
The Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan, a political wing of Tehreek-i-Labbaik YaRasool Allah, came up with a list of 178 candidates across the country.
Led by firebrand cleric Khadim Hussain Rizvi, the party gained popularityon the issue of Khatm-e-Nabuwat and showed surprising results in theby-polls held in Punjab and KP a few months before the end of the PML-Ngovernment’s tenure.
The TLP, representing Barelvi school of thought, mainly focused on Punjab,but fielded 16 candidates in KP, 32 in Sindh and six in Balochistan, thepaper said.
TLP leader Pir Ijaz Ashrafi said the people across the country would votefor those who stood firm to protect the finality of prophethood(Khatm-e-Nabuwat).
An amendment had changed the wordings of a clause relating to a candidate’sbelief in the finality of the prophethood of Prophet Muhammad, which issubmitted at the time of election by candidates, turning it into adeclaration form instead of an affidavit, which puts a candidate under oath.
The then law minister Zahid Hamid resigned after violent clashes broke outbetween the TLP supporters and security forces which had left severalpeople dead and hundreds injured in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
Hafiz Saeed’s Milli Muslim League (MML) mainly focused on Punjab, althoughit did not field candidates in important districts of central and southernPunjab.
As MML has failed to get registered as a political party with the ElectionCommission of Pakistan, its candidates are contesting on the platform ofAllah-u-Akbar Tahreek (AAT).
Saeed ‘s son, son-in-law and 13 women are among 265 JuD candidatescontesting on AAT platform in general elections on national and provincialassemblies seats across Pakistan.
Saeed, who also carries a USD 10 million American bounty on his head forhis role in terror activities, is not contesting the election.
MML Spokesperson Nadeem Awam said his party was promoting the PakistanIdeology and believed in pious politics. He claimed the MML backedcandidates will give surprise at many seats.
Maulana Samiul Haq’s Jamiat Ulema-i-Islami, Sahibzada Hamid Raza’s SunniTehreek, Shia group Majlise Wahdatul Muslimeen besides some other smallreligious entities also fielded more than a dozen candidates in differentareas of the country.