A relatively new anti-blasphemy party, whose leader has reportedly vowed to nuke the Netherlands should he ever come to power, did surprisingly well in Pakistan's elections last week.
Islamic fundamentalist parties fielded more than 1,500 candidates in Pakistan’s provincial and national elections that were won by cricket hero-turned politician Imran Khan.
The performance of Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP), led by radical preacher Khadim Hussain Rizvi, will worry mainstream politicians and human rights activists the most.
The group, founded in 2015, entered the national consciousness last year when it blockaded the capital Islamabad for several weeks calling for stricter enforcement of Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws.
It wants the automatic death penalty for anyone deemed to have insulted Islam or the Prophet Muhammad.
Mr. Rizvi reportedly told journalists recently that if he took power in the nuclear-armed country he would “wipe Holland off the face of the earth”, over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed published there.
Fortunately for the Netherlands, the TLP failed to win any of the 272 seats up for grabs in Pakistan's National Assembly.
It did, however, capture two seats in the provincial assembly of Sindh.
The TLP polled over 2.23 million votes in the national assembly elections, its first general election, and more than 2.38 million provincial votes, election commission website data shows.
“Their overall number of votes is very surprising. It's a really spectacularly rapid rise,” political commentator Fasi Zaka told AFP.
