Jamaat-i-Islami, a hard-line Islamist party, Saturday afternoon announced a boycott of the Karachi polls in protest against election irregularities.

WSJ: Karachi Beset by Political Strife

For example, the Islamic Circle of North America adheres to similar ideology as the Jamaat-i-Islami, which calls for Islamic revolution and creating an Islamist state in Pakistan.

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Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), the oldest religious party in Pakistan, boycotted the 2008 elections in protest at former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, but it has fielded some strong candidates in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh.

BBC: Q&A: Pakistan's parliamentary elections

He is now competing against his cousin Ghazan Khan, a political newcomer whose affiliation with a hard-line religious party, Jamaat-i-Islami, could be the exception to the rule when it comes to party ideology trumping family ties.

WSJ: Pakistani Candidates Hop Parties With Little Resistance

It was also as a result from the loss of legitimate authority, as in Iran of the Shah, of those in powers confronted by populist movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and the Jamaat-i-Islami in Pakistan.

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The Jamaat-i-Islami, which won 16 seats, may have firm views about the role of women and be opposed to American-style hamburger bars in Dhaka's city centre, but it does not indulge in the same level of anti-western talk as its counterparts in Pakistan.

ECONOMIST: Big defeat for the ruling party

There had in fact been some American unease during the campaign when the Awami League, the party of the outgoing prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, claimed that there was little to distinguish the ideology of the Jamaat-i-Islami and the smaller Islami Oika Jote parties from that of the Taliban of Afghanistan.

ECONOMIST: Big defeat for the ruling party