Pakistan Polls: Sectarian Parties Routed, Bigwigs Fall

LAHORE — Extremist and banned religious groups have failed miserably in Pakistan’s general elections despite their massive campaign.

Hundreds of individuals linked with hardline and banned groups were competing in the polls but none of them was seen as winning a seat in the national or provincial assemblies.

Only few could garner a respectable number of votes including Muhammad Ahmad Ludhianvi whose name was removed from a banned list called Fourth Schedule ahead of election and allowed to contest, inviting international backlash.

Geo TV reported that Ludhianvi received more than 45,000 votes but was nowhere close to the victory.

Before the elections, concerns have been raised in the country over the participation of hardline Islamist groups in large numbers.

Mili Muslim League linked with Hafiz Saeed fielded dozens of candidates from the Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek as it was denied recognition by the Election Commission of Pakistan. Saeed himself led the campaign by addressing several rallies but his candidates were not seen anywhere near victory.

Hafiz Talha Saeed, the son of Saeed, contested from NA-91 seat from Sargodha (about 200-km from Lahore), the home town of the Jamaat-ud Dawa leader. Saeed’s son-in-law, Khalid Waleed, was a candidate in PP-167.

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Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) and Pakistan Rah-e-Haq Party (formerly Sipahe Sahaba)  sectarian group, had fielded more than 100 candidates but none of them came closer to victory, according to unofficial results so far.

Mutahida Majlis-e-Aml (MMA) was the biggest religious alliance of several leading parties was leading on only eight seats of national assembly despite massive campaign by its leader which included  Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl Chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman.  Maulana Fazlur Rehman himself  lost to PTI candidate Ali Ameen Gandapur.

Abbasi, Bilawal Among Big Losers

Many political bigwigs in Pakistan suffered shocking defeats in the national elections even as votes were still being counted, with former Prime Ministers Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Yousaf Raza Gilani, and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari losing their strongholds.

While the preliminary results from different parts of the country had good news for the PTI, it brought bad news for many top leaders from various parties who bit the dust in the polls.

The biggest setback was for PML-N’s Abbasi as he lost both his seats, in Islamabad and his native constituency in Murree. He was defeated by Imran Khan in the capital. Abbasi was supported by banned sectarian group Sipah-e-Sahaba.

Shehbaz Sharif, who had contested from three parliamentary seats – Karachi, Dera Ghazi Khan and Lahore — was defeated by PTI candidates in Karachi and in Dera Ghazi Khan. However, he managed to win the Lahore seat.

PPP leader and former PM Gilani lost his home turf in Multan.

Similarly, another surprise defeat was that of former Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan, a former confidant of Nawaz Sharif who had defected from the PML-N and fought as an Independent. He lost in Rawalpindi.

He was among the politicians who have consecutively been winning their seats since 1988. It was for the first time he lost in his home constituency.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who was fighting his first political battle from Malakand, lost by a huge margin of 10,000 votes.

ANP leader Ghulam Ahmed Bilour also lost his seat. “It seems Imran Khan is the favourite leader of the people.”

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