DefinePK

Abstract

<jats:p>This paper assumes a part of scholar's Ph.D. dissertation on(comparative analysis of the electoral politics of religious and secular political parties both at macro and micro level) and examines the causes of their success and failure in district Charsadda, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The paper specifically examines Awami National Party (ANP) and Jamiat-e-Ulama Islam Fazalur Rehman (JUI-F) having opposing ideologies. ANP leaders and workers suffered when faced with an unrestricted socially revolutionary message from the Taliban as the Taliban could only appeal to Pakhtun nationalists' aspirations against the disgust of US presence in Afghanistan. Being part of the government ANP hindered Taliban confrontation against US forces which seemed a start of civil war between Pakhtun nationalists and Pakhtun Taliban. A qualitative research method was used, and data were collected through participant observation, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions. This paper suggests that terrorism had significant impacts on the rise and fall of ANP and JUI-F in the electoral politics of Pakistan. Furthermore, this study finds that on the grass-root level, deviant cultural behavior of both the parties' leaders and workers affected the vote bank badly, causing the emergence of new political thinking in the area under study.</jats:p>