Religious extremist political parties like TLP, JUI-F would harm Pakistan: Minister

Pakistan Information Minister Fawad Chaudhary said on Tuesday that the rise in "religious extremist" political parties such as recently unbanned Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) and the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) would ultimately harm the country.

His remarks come as Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) suffered a major defeat in recent local body polls of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Dawn reported.

The JUI-F bagged the highest number of mayor/chairman seats. Led by Pakistan Democratic Movement Chief Fazal-ur-Rehman, JUI-F is a Deobandi Sunni political party. It pursues the ideal of enforcement of Shariah law in the country.

The JUI-F has won elections in 10 tehsil councils, PTI in 9, ANP in 5, PML-N and Jamaat-e-Islami have bagged one seat each, The News International reported citing the unofficial and unconfirmed results of 31 out of 64 tehsil councils in 17 districts.

Fawad was speaking to media a day after the PTI faced a major upset in the first phase of KP local body polls, while the JUI-F bagged the highest number of mayor/chairman seats.

"Today was a meeting of a federal cabinet, not a meeting of the PTI's core committee. We will talk about this at a meeting for the core committee," he said when asked about his concerns over the results of the polls.

However, this just proves that the PTI is a national party, he said, adding that the rest were merely "local parties". "If the PTI did not exist then there would be no national party in the country."

Talking about the JUI-F, he said that the party had ruined the education and finance sectors in KP in 2002. "It is unfortunate that, due to our mistakes, such a political party has been noticed [by the people]," he said.

He said that the rise of "religious extremist parties" such as the TLP and JUI-F would ultimately harm the country.

( With inputs from ANI )