The religious political parties of old are being replaced by feistier, more radical versions and there is little they can do about it — that's the gist of Nasir Jamal's feature in today's Dawn.

Jamal in his write-up explains that the likes of Jamaat-i-Islami and Tahirul Qadri’s Pakistan Awami Tehreek, both of whom had always operated in the shadows of mainstream parties, now have a new rival — one that is cut from the same cloth but is more in vogue (Read TLYRA, MML, AAT).

The politics of the new players is far more aggressive, condemnatory and exclusionary than their predecessors. These groups have begun their journey from a point where the conventional religious political parties have yet to reach. — an excerpt from the piece

The piece is very insightful for someone interested in the vastly changed religiopolitical landscape of Pakistan.

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