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Religious parties— some new, others long-established— are fielding more than 1,500 candidates for national and provincial assemblies in Pakistan's general election on 25 July.
Several ultra-Islamist groups are contesting the poll and have the potential to reshape the political landscape of the nuclear-armed country of 208 million people.
Following are details of some of the main Islamist groups taking part.
The Milli Muslim League was founded by Hafiz Saeed's charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) in August 2017. The party is banned in Pakistan for its association with Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Saeed, who is on a UN terrorism list in connection with 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people.
Although the Mumbai 26/11 terror attack mastermind Saeed has publicly claimed the party with be contesting the elections, the Election Commission of Pakistan has not cleared the outfit and may have to contest as independents with the backing of the MML.
The Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) emerged out of a protest movement in 2016 against the state's execution of Mumtaz Qadri, a bodyguard of the governor of Punjab province who gunned down his boss in 2011, over the governor’s call to reform Pakistan's blasphemy laws.
Khadim Hussain Rizvi, an Islamic preacher paralysed from the waist down following a road accident, heads the party.
In its first ever by-election in September 2017, the party surprised Pakistani political elite with a strong showing by securing nearly 8 percent of total votes cast.
The Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) was founded in 1985 and is banned for being the political wing of sectarian militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), which has been allied with al-Qaeda and Islamic State and responsible for the killing of hundreds of minority Shi'ite Muslims.
The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) is an alliance of candidates from two major parties and more than a dozen small religious groups. The MMA was founded prior to the general election in 2002, which was conducted under military ruler General Pervez Musharraf. It comprises more than two dozen extremist religious parties from various sects.
The alliance won enough seats to form the government in Pakistan's north-western province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and promoted a harsh brand of sharia, or Islamic law.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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