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The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Urdu: جمیعت علمائے اسلام) (Assembly of Islamic Clergy, or JUI) is a political party in Pakistan. It formed a combined government in national elections 2002 and 2008.

[edit] Background

JUI is a Deobandi organization, part of the Deobandi Muslim movement ^[1]. The JUI formed when members broke from the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind in 1945 after that organization backed the Indian National Congress against the Muslim League's lobby for a separate Pakistan^[2]. The first president of the JUI was Allamah Shabbir Ahmad Usmani.

The JUI remained a predominantly religious organization with limited political activity until it was revived by Maulana Mufti Mahmood as a vehicle to oppose the modernization policies of then President of Pakistan, General Ayub Khan. Following the collapse of the Khan regime in the late 1960s, the JUI participated in Pakistan's first general elections in 1970.

Ideologically, JUI is regarded as uncompromisingly rigid, insisting on strict enforcement of traditional Islamic law ^[3]. JUI helped establish thousands of madrasahs in Pakistan, more than any other religious movement, and is reported to have affiliations with the Taliban movement in Afghanistan ^[4].

Currently in Pakistan, it has two wings: that of Maulana Sami-ul Haq and that of Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman (JUI-F). Both are members of the National Assembly of Pakistan and part of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal coalition.^[5]

[edit] Election Victories

The JUI is part of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), an alliance of religious parties that won 11.3% of the popular vote and 53 out of 272 elected members in the 2002 elections.

In the 2008 Pakistani general election, only the JUI-F participated because the other major component party of the MMA, the Jamaat-e-Islami, boycotted the elections to protest issues of the eligibility of President Pervez Musharraf and the restoration of the judiciary.

Unlike the 2002 elections when the MMA swept national and provincial assemblies, in 2008 the JUI-F only won 6 general seats in the National Assembly, which garnered them 1 additional seat in the Women Reserved section, raising the total to 7 NA seats. In the provincial assemblies, it won 14 seats in the NWFP Assembly, but could only muster 2 seats in the 371-seat Punjab Assembly. The party received strong support in Pakistan's western regions.^[6]