RAWALPINDI: If the number of their candidates is anything to go by, the space for religious political parties is fast shrinking in the run up to the December 5 local government elections.

A cursory review of the candidates for the Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation and Rawalpindi District Council, as well as municipal committees in various tehsils, reveals only a handful of panels affiliated with religious parties.

Mainstream parties, such as the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) and the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) have only fielded a few panels under their traditional electoral symbols.

JUI-F workers will mostly appear on the ballots in Taxila under the ‘book’ symbol. In Union Council (UC) Basti Afghana, Haji Obaidur Rehman and Mufti Bilal are candidates for the Rawalpindi District Council and Farooqul Hassan from Ward 6, Ziauddin Farooqi from Ward 14, Lal Mohammad from Ward 17 and Gulbaz Wazir from Ward 19, are candidates for the Taxila Municipal Committee.


JUI-F, JI only fielding handful of candidates under party symbol; smaller parties supporting PML-N, PTI at local level


In Rawalpindi City, the JUI-F has only fielded one panel in UC-9, led by Abdullah Asim. Otherwise, they only have general councillor in UC-4, four in UC-6, and one each in UCs 7 and 41.

The Jamaat claims to be a party of the educated classes, but has only managed six panels in six UCs in Rawalpindi City: Zafar Mehmood Shah in UC-2, Zafar Mehmood Bhatti in UC-3, Bakhtairul Haq in UC-6, Syed Arshad Farooq in UC-10, Abdul Jabbar Awan in UC-13 and Saifullah Gondal in UC-15.

The Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) has not fielded any candidates, nor have the Majlis-i-Wahdat-ul-Muslimeen and the Tehreek Nifaz-i-Fiqah Jafriya (TNFJ). Dr Tahirul Qadri’s Pakistan Awami Tehreek, however, has six hopefuls contesting across the district, albeit not under their own party symbol, ‘motorcycle’.

TNFJ spokesman Qamar Zaidi told Dawn that the party had never fielded candidates in the elections because it supported other political parties and the 2015 local government elections were no different. He said TNFJ was supporting the ruling PML-N as they had reached out for support.

JI spokesperson Malik Azam claimed his party’s candidates were contesting the elections under their own electoral symbol of ‘weighing scales’ in six UCs, while in the others, it would be supporting candidates fielded by the PTI and Sheikh Rashid’s Awami Muslim League (AML).

JUI-F’s Dr Ateequr Rehman also told Dawn that his party was contesting the elections in some areas and supporting other political parties in others. He said that local leaders and workers were allowed to support other party’s candidates according to local requirements.

ASWJ leader Mohammad Younas told Dawn the party leadership had decided to avoid fielding candidates in these local elections, while MWM’s Hassnain Zaidi said they had allowed district chapters to support local politicians as necessary at the UC and city-level.

Electability

In contrast, candidates from the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal alliance (which also included JI and JUI-F) won at least five nazim seats in the garrison city during the 2001 local government elections.

One explanation for their shrinking presence is that many locals have realised that candidates from mainstream political parties can solve their problems in a far better manner.

Senior journalist Amir Mateen told Dawn that space for religious parties, especially in Sindh and Punjab, had shrunk in the last general elections. Even their electability on the national level had suffered if one goes by the seats they managed to win in the national and provincial assemblies, he said.

The Jamaat has, in the past, won National Assembly seats from Rawalpindi. But they lost in 2013, an event that has had a trickle-down effect at the local level.

Another factor, according to Mr Mateen, for the low number of direct candidates from religious parties, was their defensive stance following the operation against militancy and extremism. “They [religious parties] are reluctant to bring their people to the forefront.”

“Religious parties are finding it difficult to field suitable candidates and are mostly supporting the ruling party,” said former PML-N MNA Malik Shakil Awan.

He said that religious parties could not win seats in past local government elections as their workers and supporters were scattered in various areas, adding that they only fielded candidates in the general elections.

PTI’s Zahid Kazmi, however, was of the view that the religious parties had a limited vote bank and preferred to support major political parties rather than fielding their own candidates.

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2015

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