Read latest update of story dated April 14, 2013 to click this link titled “There is no Gen. Hamid Gull, there is no Army play up so there is no grand alliance of radicals in Pakistan election this time. Still chances of routine Saudi Arabian intervention for helping radicals for election alliance”.
LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) and Jamiat Ulema Islam Fazl Rehman ((JUI-F) have decided to finalize formulate Election Alliance. There is possibility that Jamaat-i-Islami will also join such alliance and history will repeat itself when all major religious parties will join hands against moderate and liberal Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).
Answering questions of mediamen at the residence of Mian Nawaz Sharif in Lahore, Mian Nawaz Sharif idicated that Jamat-i-Islami can also join such Election Alliance if it needs so. PML (N) will also attend All Parties Conference (APC) scheduled for Feb 28 in Islamabad.
It was expected by political experts that radical right wing political parties will join hands before 2013 general elections and things are moving towards same path as did in 1988 when Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (or IJI) was formed in September 1988 to oppose the democratic socialist Pakistan People’s Party in elections that year. The only difference is in the situation that Awami National Party (ANP) was a part of IJI but this time it is strong supporter of PPP because both moderate parties are fighting with purist Islamists like Taliban who are strongly supported by JUI, Jamaat-i-Islami and PML (N).
It may be mentioned that IJI won only fifty-three seats in the National Assembly, compared with ninety-two won by the PPP. Most IJI seats were won in Punjab. Nawaz Sharif emerged from the 1988 elections as the most powerful politician outside the PPP. In December 1988, he succeeded in forming an IJI administration in Punjab and became the province’s chief minister. It was from this power base that he waged the political battles that eventually led to his becoming prime minister in 1990. In the supercharged atmosphere of the 1990 elections, the electorate surprised observers. Neither the IJI nor the PPP was expected to come up with a firm mandate to rule. Yet the IJI received a strong mandate to govern, winning 105 seats versus forty-five seats for the Pakistan Democratic Alliance (PDA), of which the PPP was the main component in the National Assembly.
