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Tuesday March 19, 2024

Imran wants to woo religious votes by alliance with Sami

By Tariq Butt
November 21, 2017

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran aspires to achieve at least three key political objectives by firming up his affiliation with the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Sami (JUI-S) headed by Maulana Samiul Haq.


The bottom-line of these aims that the PTI chief desires to accomplish is to counter his opponents in the forthcoming general elections particularly in Khyber Pakhtukhwa (KP). Before having a look at his intended goals and prospects of his success, it may be instructive to point out that the JUI-S is not and has never been a powerful political force to be reckoned with. It has never shown any noteworthy performance in any election that it contested.


Samiul Haq himself, his highly respected late father and his son were elected to the National Assembly or Senate during different times. However, the JUI-S’ religious clout has always been significant especially among the Taliban as several of them had studied in its Darul Uloom Haqqania, Akora Khattak.


Imran Khan wants to get whatever pockets of support the JUI-S has in different areas of KP for his candidates by hammering out an electoral coalition with him. As per the prospective deal, a couple of federal and provincial seats may go to the JUI-S nominees, who will be supported by the PTI.


The PTI chief’s first target is to nail even initial efforts to revive the past nine-party Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), which had formed government in KP after winning the 2002 general elections. Subsequently, the alliance became inactive and defunct due to intense squabbling mainly between the JUI-F and Jamaat-e-Islami.


Former component parties of the MMA recently initially agreed to restore it, but nothing is yet finalized. More talks are planned. The JUI-S will obviously stay away from its revival if its coalition with the PTI is concluded. Since the PTI came into power in KP, the provincial government has had good relations with Samiul Haq. It was for this reason that the KP government had given a Rs300 million grant to Samiul Haq’s Darul Uloom Haqqania, Akora Khattak. Some PTI leaders have always been shy of defending this funding. It was argued that the money was provided to the seminary for its mainstreaming.


If the PTI-JUI-S alliance is finalized and there are clear indications that it will certainly be, the resurgence of the MMA may not take place. Other partners specifically the JUI-F may become lukewarm to bringing the MMA to life for the forthcoming general elections.


The second objective that Imran Khan wants to realize by working in conjunction with the JUI-S is to damage the JUI-Fazl of Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the archrival of the PTI, particularly in KP. However, the JUI-F’s electoral power far exceeds the following of the JUI-S since the split of this party decades ago. Even at present while the JUI-Fhas a weighty say in the Balochistan and KP assemblies, the JUI-S has nothing. The JUI-F has always been ahead of the other faction in the electoral arena. For this precise reason, Fazlur Rehman is always more effective politically.


The collaboration between the PTI and JUI-S is unlikely to diminish the vote-bank of the JUI-F. Samiul Haq’s party has some presence in KP but it doesn’t exist in Balochistan where the JUI-F has a lot of electoral power.


Samiul Haq’s remarks during the preliminary meeting with Imran Khan run counter to what Fazlur Rehman has been saying against the PTI and its chief. He said the ideologies of the two parties have similarities and they could work together. He “praised” the provincial government’s “pro-Islamic steps” in KP. “Pakistan had been besieged by enemies and there was a need for a united struggle to face the current situation.”


Imran Khan and Fazlur Rehman continue to dub each other as the “agents” of foreign powers for political point scoring. The JUI-F chief figures among the prominent politicians, who have attracted maximum umbrage from the PTI chairman over the last four years mainly because of Falzur Rehman’s solid support to Nawaz Sharif. At times, Fazlur Rehman has responded to the criticism while at others he has been simply ignoring it because he can’t match his opponent’s politics. The third target that the PTI chairman wants to hit in the upcoming parliamentary polls in the KP is to bag maximum religious votes by having a cooperative relationship with the JUI-S. However, Samiul Haq’s party has no say whatever in any other province.


Imran Khan has started paying attention to the religious minded voters apparently due to the emergence of this phenomenon with a bang in the recent by-elections to NA-120 Lahore and NA-4 Peshawar. This segment may play a decisive role in the constituencies where the difference of votes secured by leading candidates will not be very wide. The PTI chairman wants to overcome this deficiency that his nominees may face in some areas.


In the run up to the 2018 general elections, more whipping up of religious sentiments looms on the political horizon so that such kind of groups make a dent in the strength of the major parties, which are speculated to be winning most seats. It is believed that apart from Imran Khan’s exuberance to work with Samiul Haq, it was mainly KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, who was instrumental in making him to have a meeting and form a coalition with the JUI-S chief for the reason that the Darul Uloom Haqqania falls in his home district of Nowshera where he needs support from all elements, having any kind of electoral say.