During general elections in Pakistan every major political party advocates popular policies and catchy slogans like roti, kapra aur makan (bread, clothing and shelter) in order to win public support. In other words, they try to win elections to implement their preferred policies. In both cases, the aim is to govern. Religious parties are no different. They are also obsessed with gaining power.
In Pakistan secular parties are capable of winning general elections and religious parties always form either a coalition government as a junior partner or a minor supporter of a majority party in the parliament. During different elections in the past they were either weak or nonexistent across much of Pakistan. However, their full inclusion into the democratic process is critical to any meaningful process of democratization in the country. Their normal electoral slogans are: Islamic system, Islamic revolution, and Shariah, etc.
Islamist parties rarely contest the total number of available parliamentary seats, instead they usually contest for less than 50 % of all available seats. This trend shows that they want to establish a pressure group for the ruling majority party in the Parliament. When they raise the slogan of Shariah or Islamic revolution, one fails to understand how a religious revolution can be heralded with less than 50% participation. Of course, the end winning product is further less than 50 %. This would mean the religious parties are looking for an Islamic revolution with a minority; this in itself is a negation of majority rule – Democracy.
Islamist parties are good at winning when they want to however their ideology is a stumbling block to victory. Winning is not what they want. They want a victory of majority with their sole dependency on their minority support which is a dichotomy. Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) is a party which does not have its roots in the common men. It is a closed disciplined party with every member as a staunch member of the party. They believe in Islamic Shariah in the country. It’s stated that in every constituency in Pakistan’s parliamentary elections, JI has a vote bank of 8000-10000. If that is so how is it possible for it to win elections with ‘full majority’? How will a JI sponsored shariah come in Pakistan? How come JI will form the government based on Quran and Sunnah?
A few other religious parties are also willing to win elections by any means necessary. Most make temporary tactical compromises in order to better their chances for future victory. Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) is one of such cases and this party is ready to have an electoral alliance with any liberal or secular party for its own gains. They are more interested in being part of a government – as a junior partner that is. History is witness that this party has always tried to remain with the ruling party, however at the end of the elected term, they opt for the Opposition benches to go back to the electorate for seeking a fresh favorable mandate. JUI always raises the slogan of Islamic system in Pakistan however this slogan was restricted to the electioneering only. No effort was made to take up the issue of Sharia in Pakistan in the Parliament. During the MMA government of 2002-08 in NWFP (now renamed as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) the JUI government completely failed to bring even a fraction of Shariah or Islamic System in the province. One can understand the fact that the MMA was elected during 2002 not for the Islamic System but for showing solidarity with the religious parties who openly opposed the US moves of invading Afghanistan just after 9/11 events. However, their modus operandi of governance was just as liberal as any other non-religious party’s government.
Islamist parties exhibit several features that set them apart. To begin with, they do not necessarily need to rule to fulfill their slogan of Islamization of society. Contrary to the experience of Western Europe’s socialist parties, which could make society “socialist” only if they held power – and perhaps not even then, really, society in Pakistan can be made “Islamic” even if Islamists consistently lose elections. This has arguably already happened in Pakistan where voters may be even more conservative than Islamic parties themselves. Tableeghi Jama’at (TJ) can be cited as an example. They are more orthodox and conservative than religious political parties. That is one of the big reasons that till to-date, the religious political parties have failed to attract votes of the TJ for themselves. However, followers of the TJ cast their votes randomly.
Some other religious political parties like Jama’at-ud-Dawa and parties based on sectarian divide also favor their own factions or make an alliance with other major parties for raising their voice independently. However, in most cases, they keep away from the mainstream religious political parties.
In Pakistan there has been another very interesting fact to political wings of religious movements. Mainstream Islamist parties act politically with a mind to non political considerations. Most religious parties remain tied to religious movements through informal links and overlapping memberships. The madressas and Mosques are non political movements. There are numerous non-political students’ wings of the political movements. Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba, Anjuman-e-Tehreek-e-Islami and Jamiat-e-Talaba-Islam, Imamia Students organization are a few students’ wings of the Islamist parties in Pakistan. They are linked with the politics of main religious political parties. Similarly, numerous madressas and mosques based on sectarianism are compartmentalized along with their affiliation with different sectarian political parties. They cannot use a strict electoral calculus when adopting public positions. They always take into account the interests of the parent organization like the JUI, JI, Sunni Tehreek (ST) or Tehreek-e-Fiqh-e-Jafria (TFJ). In return, these political parties derive much of their legitimacy, grassroots support, and to some extent financial backing too. Moreover, they do not always have a choice. The Islamist parties have at times had its plans overruled by their student wings, which maintain a strong influence over the main hierarchy of the party despite technically being administratively and financially separate.
There are only two cases different than the rest of Islamist parties in Pakistan – the Tableeghi Jama’at (TJ) and the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI). Both illustrate the party-versus-movement very clearly. The TJ and JI, while sometimes acting like a party, may or may not be a party. They are more of religious movements. It participates in elections without any political affiliation. Both concerned with strengthening the religious and moral character of its members through an extensive training process. The TJ calls it Tarteeb (system), while the JI calls it Tarbi’at (training). Unlike in most traditional parties, becoming a member is a choice that brings with it a set of obligations, expectations and strict standards of moral conduct. For JI and TJ each member is part of a local council that meets on a weekly basis (Dars-e-Quran and Gasht) respectively to discuss religious topics and other matters relevant to the organization. The difference between the two parties is that the JI is a full-time political party and does discuss electoral alliances and elections process in its meetings. But the TJ is a pure religious movement without any political considerations.
Furthermore, the Jamaat-e-Islami’s legitimacy and grassroots support comes primarily from its social (Al-Khidmat Foundation) and educational activities (Baithak Schools, Hira Schools, Dar-e-Arqam etc) and not from parliamentary representation. That’s the reason that it still showed its muscles in the last five years despite the fact that it remained out of the parliament due to its decision to boycott the 2008 elections. Hence it privileges self preservation over political contestation. In most cases, their electoral success is dependent on the success of their charity and social service activities and not the other way round. But the JUI works the other way round.
For strengthening democracy and parliamentary form of government, it’s the need of the time that the religious parties may be given due share in the system. However, it’s also a fact that the slogans of Islamic revolution and Shariah have lost their credibility especially during the religious parties’ government under the banner of MMA rule during 2002-2008. Islamic revolution is a mere slogan left to cash more votes by the religious parties during the forthcoming general elections in May this year. This time a slogan of revolution based on social justice and purity of system would muster more votes than religious rhetoric.
