Electoral Performance of Religio-Political Parties in Pakistan: An Assessment 35 Electoral Performance of Religio-Political Parties in Pakistan: An Assessment *Muhammad Azhar **Ayaz Muhammad Abstract The interconnection and interdependence between religion, politics and the nation-state is the core behind the political legitimization and considers as the basic pillar of a state. The state like Pakistan, which emerged on the map of the world during the decolonization process in the name of religion, it is important to know either religion plays any role in religio-socialization or in the electoral cum political framework. Pakistan is the country rich with political parties, conservatives and liberal. The paper aims to investigate why religio-political parties did not succeed to achieve their goal of Islamization of the state and religio-socialization of the society. It will also seek why these religio-political forces did not succeed to win the popular votes in the majority even then these were contesting the elections regularly. The paper will discuss the causes behind the declining electoral performance of these parties. Keywords: Religio-political, electoral, Religio-socialization Religio-political Parties in Pakistan: A Historical Perspective: A political party has centric role in the modern political system. It plays an important role in the socio-political transformation of the society and articulating the citizens’ aspirations. Political parties reflect the public will in the state institutions and are responded in the elections by the masses on the basis of their agenda which manifests the desires and needs of the society. Political parties became an inevitable instrument for the transformation of the public will into political will in the subcontinent after the British introduced democratic system. The role of political parties is very important in “interests articulation”,” aggregation”and channel them in the political system for policies and decisions. Different political parties’channelized the “ideological abstraction”, “cultural symbols and historical references” for creating and promoting political awareness among the masses. The parties used to mobilize the public availing the social realities and predefined ideologies through their election manifestos. Caton illustrates four main objectives of the political parties. First, Political parties used to formulate policies and programs to uplift the socioeconomic conditions of the masses under the ambit of national interest. Secondly, the parties used to space the pubic popular demands in their electoral manifestos to get the maximum electoral support during the elections. Thirdly, political parties are the best leadership breeders. They used to recruit the individuals and trained them to run how to run the government. Fourth, The centrality of the all the political parties is to attract the electorates in maximum to win the election and gain the power 1 . ____________________________________________________________________________ *Ph.D Scholar, Department of Political Science, B.Z. University, Multan. **Dean, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, B.Z. University, Multan.