ISLAMABAD – The grand hopes of a conservative alliance are now looking moreshattered than ever before. The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal is falling apart.New reports have revealed that the JUI-F and the JI will be fieldingdifferent candidates in FATA.
The MMA had been a strange, almost politically unnatural coalition thistime around. The JUI-F and the JI do not have much in common. For a longtime, the Jammat was the leading partner of the PTI government in KP. TheJUI-F, was a staunch government party, and a constant threat to thestability of that KP coalition government.
The common link between the two is that they are religious politicalparties. That makes their alliance a little more understandable. For alltheir differences, the JUI-F and the JI represent the old, traditionalDeobandi brand of Islamic democratic politics. What we have seen this timearound is that the powers that be seem to be backing a different shade ofreligious politicians.
For the first time Brelvi political activism has come to the fore and withsome serious zeal ala TLYR. Also entering electoral politics are forceslike the MMA. These are much more potent, and much more dangerous, forcesthan something like the JUI-F or the JI.
Sure, the MMA is more than willing to cooperate with the establishment, infact, they might even have their blessing. But they aren’t exactly thefavoured ones anymore.
Ardent but more moderate political Islamists might have been pinning theirhopes on the MMA. Together, the two could have had some serious gains inKP. But with internal squabbles going nowhere, the MMA is falling apart.
The following they might have had looks set to evaporate, or at least splitalong the old lines, and the participation of the MMA ticket seems more forold time’s sake than anything else.