Hafiz Saeed’s JuD to contest in 2018 Pakistan general election
ISLAMABAD: Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed has said his banned organisation Jammat-ud-Dawah will contest in next general elections scheduled for 2018 under the banner of the newly formed Milli Muslim League party.
The decision to field his party was aimed at helping to “highlight the Kashmir cause internationally”, Saeed told a group of journalists at Jamia Qadsia in Lahore on Saturday.
The JuD chief, who was released from house arrest last week, alleged India was lobbying internationally to malign the Kashmir cause and Pakistan’s incumbent government had bowed down to appease New Delhi.
He said he believed that India was forcing the Pakistani government to abandon the Kashmir cause “which is not possible”.
“This is the right time to enter the country’s politics to persuade the world community by establishing an independent foreign desk to highlight the Kashmir cause,” he said.
Milli Muslim League had contested the September by-election for the NA-120 constituency in Lahore. The National Assembly seat had fallen vacant after the disqualification of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif by the Supreme Court in the Panama Papers case. His wife Kulsoom Nawaz won that seat.
Sheikh Yaqoob, a JuD-backed candidate who secured 6,000 votes, had announced at the time that the JuD would contest the 2018 elections. Yaqoob was placed on a US Treasury sanctions list of those designated as leaders of terrorist organisations in 2012.