Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed’s party will also participate in the Pakistan general elections scheduled on February 8, media reports said on Monday.
Pakistan Markazi Muslim League, a new political party which is said to be a new face of the banned groups of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks mastermind Saeed, will participate in the elections, the reports said.
According to the BBC report, 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-Taiba, 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.
Pakistan 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.
In the past, a few people associated with Jamaat-ud-Dawa tried to participate in the elections in 2018 from the 'Milli Muslim League' party, but the Election Commission of Pakistan banned the organisation and rejected its application for registration after opposition from the then government.
