Milli Muslim League President Saifullah Khalid has announced plans for the creation of an Islamic State in Pakistan and clearly stated that Hafiz Saeed will play a major role in the party.
"We declare our [platform] to be for the change in the ideology of Pakistan, We plan to make Pakistan a real Islamic state. [Because of] a nefarious plan, the country has been put on the road to secularism and liberalism," Khalid said at a party launch in Islamabad recently, the Washington Times reports.
Declaring war on liberal elements in Pakistani society, MML leaders organized various public rallies in major cities on the day the country marked its 70th Independence Day.
Khalid also made it clear that Hafiz Saeed will also play a role in Pakistan politics and his designation by U.S. as a global terrorist would be no bar to a top job in the party.
Khalid said "What role he will play in the Milli Muslim League or in Pakistan's ongoing politics will be seen after Allah ensures his release,. Once he is released, "we will meet him and ask him what role he would like to play. He is the leader of Pakistan."
This shows how such groups are securing a hold in civil society, a group accused of terrorism is fielding a new mainstream party with the explicit aim to make Pakistan a "real Islamic state."
Saeed has been accused of masterminding 2008 attacks on Mumbai that killed 166 people. The U.S. government declared the group a terrorist organization in 2010, and offered $10 million for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Saeed, who heads JuD, which Washington says is a front for the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
The emergence of political outfit by Hafiz like terrorists clearly illustrates Pakistan's deeply ambivalent attitude about terrorism, the Washington Times quotes observers, as saying. Those suspected of terrorism or terrorist links roam freely throughout the country, address public gatherings and appear in television interviews, where they plead their innocence to the public.