SIXTEEN years ago, some religious parties formed an election alliance by which they not only formed the government in province but also bagged more than 60 seats in the centre.

This time before elections they once again made an alliance — Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) under the leadership of JUI-Fazlur Rehman. But this time the result was contrary to 2002 elections.

In 2002 elections, all religious parties were under one umbrella. This time apart from the other so-called secular parties, they had to confront religious parties as well, which was the main reason for their unity.

The Jamaat-i-Islami and JUI-F were the two prominent parties of the alliance, but apart from these two, there were other parties from different sects.

Interestingly, they faced a debacle in their home constituencies and even some new parties did better than the MMA.

This performance of the alliance raises many questions. Fazlur Rehman declared it pre-poll rigging and protested. The other most crucial thing is that they did not have support from the establishment.

Before the alliance, JUI-F was the supporter of the PML-N, while the JI was with the PTI. JUI-F and JI are now united only because of their common grievance of ‘rigging’, for they don’t have any other way to hide their failure.

Zulfiqar Ali Turi

Parachinar

Published in Dawn, August 16th, 2018