Religious parties, including the banned Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD)'s political wing Milli Muslim League (MML), have fielded more than 460 candidates on the National Assembly seats for the July 25 general elections for the first time in the country’s history, focusing on all the provinces and breaking all past records, reports The Nation. Although Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) had come up with a long list of aspirants in 1970 against the then nominees of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Sheikh Mujeeb’s Awami League (AW) in East and West Pakistan, and Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA)had also fielded candidates across the country in 2002, the number stands the highest this time.
More than 460 aspirants fielded separately by MMA, Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), MML-backed Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek (AAT) and other small entities might not be able to create any upset except on a few seats in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan, they would certainly play a decisive role in the victory and defeat of The Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and PPP candidates on a number of seats. The election results would show total religious vote bank in Pakistan besides clearly narrating the number of well wishers of each party, defining its political weight and putting it at a bargaining position with mainstream political parties in next elections.