ISLAMABAD, Feb 5:
A new political party named Pakistan Markazi Muslim League, believed to be a new face of the banned groups of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed, is participating in Thursday’s general elections, according to a media report.
A BBC Urdu report has said some of the candidates nominated by this organisation from different cities of Pakistan are those who are either relatives of Hafiz Saeed or have been associated with the banned Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jamaat-ud-Dawa or Milli Muslim League in the past.
Saeed, who has been incarcerated in a jail in Lahore, has been sentenced to a total of 31 years by Pakistan’s anti-terrorism courts in several cases of financing terrorism.
He was on December 10, 2008, included in the list of ‘global terrorists’ by the UN.
On December 29 last year, India asked Pakistan to extradite Saeed, who is wanted by Indian probe agencies in several terror cases.
India has also taken note of reports of Saeed’s son Talha contesting elections in Pakistan and said the “mainstreaming” of radical terror outfits in the neighbouring country is nothing new and that it has been part of its State policy for a long time.
Talha Saeed is considered the No.2 person in the LeT hierarchy, with his father being at the helm of the terror outfit.
Pakistan has also listed LeT, JuD and its affiliated parties and institutions, including Khair Naas International Trust, Falah Insaniyat Foundation, Al-Anfal Trust, Khamtab Khalq Institution, Al-Dawwat Al-Arshad, Al-Hamad Trust, Al-Madinah Foundation and Mu’az bin Jabal Educational Trust, in the list of banned organisations.
Quoting analysts, who monitor religious parties in Pakistan, the report on Saturday claimed the Markazi Muslim League is the ‘new political face’ of Saeed’s JuD.
A spokesman of the party, however, denied any affiliation with Saeed’s organisations.
The report said Saeed’s son Hafiz Talha Saeed is participating in the elections from the Markazi Muslim League party and contesting from National Assembly Constituency NA-122 in Lahore — the same constituency from which Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader and former federal minister Khawaja Saad Rafique is also contesting.
Similarly, Saeed’s son-in-law Hafiz Nek Gujjar is contesting the election from the Provincial Assembly constituency PP-162 on the ticket of the Markazi Muslim League. (PTI)
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