Pakistan Ulema Council to contest general elections

Hafiz Tahir Mahmood Ashrafi, Chairman of Pakistan Ulema Council (PUC). (Photo courtesy: social media)

• Pakistan Ulema Council (PUC) is drafting its manifesto for the general election where it will field candidates in all constituencies along with its allies.
• Political analysts believe that the PUC’s participation in elections will help counter extremism and terrorism in the society.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Ulema Council (PUC) has decided to contest seats in the upcoming general elections, along with its allies. The council plans to field candidates in all constituencies.
“We are working on our manifesto and will take part in the general elections with full preparation,” Hafiz Tahir Mahmood Ashrafi, chairman of the PUC, told Arab News.
He said that as the PUC has been registered with Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) as a political party, so there was no legal bar on the PUC contesting the election.
“The (PUC) central executive committee is currently weighing different options of electoral alliance with other political parties,” he said.
Ashrafi said that the council has been in touch with all political stakeholders, and would forge an alliance only with like-minded parties. He ruled out an alliance with Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), the five-party group unveiled last month, citing “ideological differences.”
With a strong structure countrywide at grassroot level, he added: “We are hopeful to get maximum votes in the elections.”
The council was formed in 1988 by the leaders of the Deobandi, Barelvi, Shia and Ahle Hadith schools of thought to promote sectarian and inter-faith harmony. Its members include religious clerics and jurists from different schools of thought.
The five-year term of the current government ends on May 31 with general elections expected to be held this August.
Tahir Malik, political analyst and professor at a public-sector university, said that the Pakistan Ulema Council had been encouraged to participate in the polls by the support candidates of another rightwing party, Tehreek Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), received in recent by-elections.
“It is encouraging to see that religious parties like the [Pakistan] Ulema Council are taking part in mainstream politics,” he told Arab News. “Participation of these parties in the elections will help overcome extremism and terrorism in the society.”
Malik said that while the religious parties, such as the PUC, may not have enough votes in the constituencies to get their candidates elected to Parliament, they are in a position to make their presence felt and become a stakeholder in electoral politics.
Elections will be held for 272 general seats in the National Assembly and 577 general seats in the four provincial assemblies. A political party requires at least 849 candidates to field in all constituencies of the National Assembly and the four provincial assemblies to contest the general election.
Rasul Bukhsh Rais, a well-known political analyst, said the religio-political parties have followers in some rural and remote areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces.
“Parties such as the Pakistan Ulema Council may not win a seat in the elections, but they can play a pivotal role in victory or defeat of a candidate of other popular parties such as Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI),” he said.
Rais added that the PUC could become a stakeholder in the electoral politics if it succeeds in forging an alliance with a major political party such as the PTI or Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).