he 2024 elections were a setback for religiopolitical parties in terms of number of seats won. However, when it comes to number of votes polled, their performance was at par with various previous electoral cycles. In some areas they have developed further inroads. Securing a good number of votes, their candidates were runners up in some constituencies.

The election was particularly challenging for religiopolitical parties because it was contested mainly with an economic idiom and these parties could not present any evidence of past performance or their strength on this crucial front. The people of Pakistan are going through trying times – unprecedented inflation and price hikes. Religiopolitical parties, particularly Jamaat-i-Islami and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, did not mention their economic performance in the 2008 campaign even though they had been sharing power in the provinces.

The major challenge confronting the religiopolitical parties today is the small number of seats in the National Assembly. They have not fared well in the provincial races either. It seems that these parties have to focus on constituency politics, especially in areas where they have secured a good number of votes. They understand the need to come up with new ideas and actively participate in parliamentary politics. These parties can play an effective role in the opposition by highlighting the issues plaguing the people instead of relying on religious symbolism.

Religiopolitical parties, it seems, are poised to go for agitational politics. This is a domain in which these parties have considerable potential. Nearly all religiopolitical parties that believe in parliamentary politics, such as the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan, the JUI-F, the JI, the Pakistan Awami Tehreek and the Milli Muslim League, have a record of and potential in agitational politics. The PAT fielded fewer candidates in the 2024 elections and did not run a campaign, although this party has staged massive rallies and protests in the past.

With 11 Provincial Assembly seats, the JUI-F is the third largest party in Balochistan. It can join the PPP-PML-N coalition and get a share in the government there. The PML-N and the PPP have already reached a consensus regarding power sharing in the Centre and Balochistan. They do not require the support of the JUI-F in Balochistan to form the government but they may accommodate Maulana Fazl-ur Rehman sooner or later because of his party’s considerable presence in Balochistan and the adjoining areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Both the JUI-F and the JI have been routed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by the PTI-backed independents. They have to regain the lost space in the province which is important for both the parties due to the social and political dynamics of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the adjoining areas.

The results of 2024 election have made some parties significant on account of the PTI-backed independents’ need for an alternative platform. The PTI currently lack an electoral symbol and cannot claim the seats reserved for women and minorities. It has been inching closer to the Sunni Ittehad Council led by Sahibzada Hamid Raza and Majlis-i-Wahdat-ul-Muslimeen (MWM) led by Allama Raja Nasir Abbas due to the necessity of its backed legislators to join these parties to secure its share of reserved seats. It is also seeking an alliance with the JUI’s Sherani group, led by Maulana Gul Naseeb. In its pursuit of reserved seats and a way to prevent its ‘independent’ members from joining other parties, the PTI will be forced to perform a difficult balancing between parties on different sides of the sectarian divide.

Maulana Fazl-ur Rehman recently claimed in an interview that there had been massive rigging in both 2018 and 2024 elections. He said the PML-N and the PTI had both acknowledged rigging when they lost and ignored it when they benefited from it. He said rigging had taken place in all the four provinces and that his party was a victim in every province. Following his meeting with an Asad Qaisar-led delegation of the PTI, he stated that there was a mountain of distrust between his party and the PTI that will take a long time to clear. He said his party and politics were the victims of intervention by an international establishment that did not want him in power in Pakistan.

The Maulana seems to believe that he alone has the capacity to play an effective role in establishing peace in Afghanistan, and that his party was targeted for this capability. He says the party will not pick up arms but will launch a comprehensive peaceful movement for progress towards his vision of electoral transparency and parliamentary politics. The politics of agitation has been a favourite medium of the religiopolitical parties. They have fared well on this front but only when an ‘Islamic’ issue, whether domestic or international, is available. In the absence of such issues, these parties have been unable in the past to mobilise significant crowds.

The SIC has, meanwhile, lodged an application with the Election Commission of Pakistan to acknowledge the PTI-backed independents joining its ranks as its members so that it can secure its share of seats reserved for women and minority population. The problem is that the profile of PTI voters and cadres does not match with those of the SIC and the MWM.