Not to register ‘Milli Muslim League’ as a mainstream political party : Home ministry asks EC
A few weeks after Mumbai terror attacks mastermind and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Saeed announced he would contest the general elections in Pakistan in 2018 on a Milli Muslim League (MML) ticket, the home ministry has asked the election commission not to register MML as a mainstream political party.
Saeed, a United Nations-designated terrorist, has a $10 million bounty on him by the US state department since 2012. He was set free last month after the Pakistan government decided against his home detention.
On Saturday, Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper reported that the home ministry, while describing the MML as an offshoot of the proscribed organisations LeT and Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), submitted a written reply in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) requesting it to dismiss MML’s petition seeking registration with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
The ministry’s request was based on a security agency’s report, which expressed that mainstreaming MML would breed violence and extremism in politics. It said that the security agency has opined that it was difficult to believe that MML will tread its own path, completely at variance with its mother (LeT and JuD) organisations.
An MML-backed candidate Yaqoob Sheikh had contested the National Assembly seat in Lahore, which was vacated by former PM Nawaz Sharif after his disqualification from holding a public office in a Panamagate case. Sheikh had stood fourth in the election, securing 5,822 votes.
Citing a provision in the Political Parties Order 2002, the home ministry said that organisations which act in the manner prejudicial to fundamental rights, undermine the integrity of Pakistan, promote sectarian, regional or provincial hatred, bear a name as a militant group and impart any military or paramilitary training to its members, do not qualify for registration as political party.
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