There is no denying the fact that Islamist political parties such as Jamaat-e-Islami, Jamiat-e-ulema e Islam and others, despite having massive pressure, do poorly in elections. These Islamist political parties enjoy massive support on-ground due to deeply manipulated and exploited members who can shut down the entire country in one call. Where does the root begin? What is the link of extremism to madrassas and political parties? These are massive questions posed now and then.
The two main Islamist political parties JI and JUI-F, work hand to hand with the establishment. They have great power and influence through mosque and madrassas.
Jamaat e Islami is a pre-independence party that Syed Abdul Ala Maududi established in 1941. In the beginning, it utterly rejected the idea of Pakistan and believed in the idealogy of pan Islamism. Though this party has not been able to do significantly well in the elections unambiguously, the amount of pressure can be judged bypassing the objective resolution, pressurised Muslim league of Islamic constitution and anti-Ahmad riots in 1953. It was jamaat activism that forced Ayoub khan to revert Pakistan to the Islamic republic in 1963. When JUI split into two parties, JUI-F came into being both these parties have pressurised every government. In the past, both parties were under one banner, which did quite well in elections: In the elections of 1977 formed an alliance called (Pakistan National Alliance) which won 36 national seats and did well in the province as well, whereas Pakistan people’s party gained 155 seats. Whereas NAP claimed the elections were rigged, Bhutto was pressurised to satisfy them and brought new policies such as banning alcohol and nightclubs. Friday was the designated weekly holiday.
In 2002 JUI-f and S and JI formed an alliance Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal this alliance was engineered by the former head of ISI Hamid Gul, which won 59 national seats and formed government in NWFP and coalition government in Balochistan.
Thus these political parties are committed to non-violence, but prominent Jihadis are from these political parties, such as Hafiz Saeed head of Lashkar-e- Taiba. Sufi Muhammad was from ( Tarika-Nafsi- shariat-Muhammadi) who cut of from Jamaat in 1981.
When MMA was in government in NWFP, it tried to bring outlandish laws as vice and virtue, office of Mohtasib. Music was ban pictures of women in the advertisement were ban it killed the art and music of NWFP, which paved the way towards extremism. The growth of terrorism was ignored entirely during this period which took the province to extremism and then terrorism, yet regions of swat and other places in KPK are terrorist bases hubs. And we can find killings of Ahmedis a prevalent thing. These political parties also have student wings in universities, and they have madrassas. The Murder of Mashal khan is a solid fact of what they do.
The phenomenon of Madrassas is not new, but their number doubled during the soviet war. And in the border regions, many madrassas were built. The purpose of these madrassas was to train Jihadis and fight to soviet it is widely accepted by PM khan and other former Army generals. This brought with it detrimental consequence, yet Pakistan is paying. JUI-s Dar ul Uloom Haqqani madrassas at Akora is notorious madrassas for terrorist ties and other unregistered madrassas in villages and small cities, which promote a particular sectarian and fundamentalist worldview.
The students of these Madrassas go out and do different jobs who spread the poisonous teachings to society and change their opinions. And there is no specific course taught in all madrassas according to research in 2002, JUI-s madrassas taught four anti-Ahmadis books, which spread hatred against Ahmadis. The passage, which is running through ages, should take a new turn on the horizon. The government and Islamic teachings should include compulsory other courses such as science math and register all madrassas. The extremism starts from very roots by cutting branches it can not help there needs a change in madrassas system.
