Jamaat-i-Islami Pakistan is one amongst many politico-religious parties, which have suffered a heavy defeat in the recent elections. Even its Ameer Siraj-ul-Haq who is widely hailed as a man of honesty and integrity has failed to win the elections from his home constituency Dir, considered as a stronghold of the party. The JI, despite being in alliance with Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, had suffered the worst electoral defeat on July 25 by securing only one seat from Upper Dir district. Political analysts were predicting that the JI in alliance with MMA will win sufficient seats in the elections but it has failed to woo the voters in KPK. The JI candidates had contested election for 39 seats of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and only Inayatullah Khan retained his seat from Upper Dir. There are different factors involved in it’s downfall but internal rift within the party’s local rank is by and large seen as the major factor that ultimately led to its debacle. In Dir district cracks within the party (JI) at local level had widened to the extent that dozens of its members have dissociated themselves from the party and joined other political parties before the elections. Even a member had filed nomination papers against party chief Sirajul Haq in Lower Dir showing the magnitude of resentment among members. This is something unusual that usually does not happen in a party like JI, which is well organized and highly disciplined party with a committed vote bank scattered all across the country. Irked over the growing indiscipline, the JI provincial chapter is said to have expelled over a dozen of its members and cancelled their basic membership for violating the party discipline during the recent general election. It is good to see that the JI after holding an inquiry has taken a disciplinary action against those who have breached the discipline and betrayed the party at a very crucial time but the shrinking political space should be the major cause of concern for the party leadership and its ideology driven workers. Despite being in politics for past several decades Jamaat has not been able to increase its vote bank. Having a strong democratic culture and massive human resources the party leadership must look around and try to find out the causes that have restricted the growth of the organization. It is time that the JI leadership should revisit the wisdom on the matter and see what steps it should or should not take to garner more public support to carve out a niche for itself in the democratic system.
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