ISLAMABAD: Complying with the latest US move that designated Hafiz Saeed’s political front Milli Muslim League as a terror group, Pakistan on Tuesday said it will challenge a court ruling that had allowed the organisation to contest national elections due in July this year.
On Monday, the US designated Milli Muslim League (MML) and Tehreek-e-Azadi-e-Jammu& Kashmir (TAJK) as terror groups and affiliates of terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), making it almost impossible for them to register as political parties.
Washington also placed sanction on seven of the MML leaders.
Pakistan’s home minister Ahsan Iqbal said on Tuesday that the government will challenge an interim legal ruling that had allowed the US-proscribed terrorist organisation MML to contest national elections in July.
Last month, the Islamabad high court had sided with MML, whose bid to register as a political party was rejected by the national election commission because of its ties to
Hafiz Saeed, the LeT founder and mastermind of the Mumbai terror attacks. Saeed has been designated as a global terrorist by the
United Nations and the
United States.
“Taking action against terrorist groups is an international obligation and the government will fulfill it,” media quoted Iqbal saying after Washington thwarted MML’s effort to contest elections in Pakistan. “This point and some more material will be shared with the court to get it undone,” Iqbal added.
The MML called the US move an attempt to pressurize Pakistan and threatened to go to court if the government took any action against it. “We obviously will challenge whatever action the government takes,” said Tabish Qayyum, a Lahore-based spokesperson for the MML.
“Pakistan is a sovereign country with its own political system where no country has the right to interfere. We want to take part in politics under Pakistan’s constitution and we are not affiliated with any terrorist or extremist. We think this step is contrary to our basic human rights,” the spokesperson said.
The MML was formed last year but the Election Commission of Pakistan, rejected its application for registration twice, citing the home ministry’s concerns that its mainstreaming as a political party would breed violence and extremism in politics.
According to well-placed sources, the plan to bring terror groups into mainstream politics was presented to the government by the military-led intelligence agencies. This plan, however, was rejected by the ex-PM Nawaz Sharif before his ouster from power by the
Supreme Court in a graft case.
