PMML, Led By 26/11 Mastermind Hafiz Saeed, To Contest All Seats In Pakistan Election

New Delhi: The Pakistan Markazi Muslim League (PMML), a political entity of the 26/11 terror attacks mastermind and founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, has announced that it will contest all the national and provincial assembly seats in the upcoming general elections slated for February 8, 2024. The PMML, which emerged after the Milli League was banned by the government, has fielded candidates from across the country, including Hafiz Saeed’s son Talha Saeed and the party’s central president Khalid Masood Sindhu.

Talha Saeed, who is a senior leader of LeT and head of the cleric wing of the terror outfit, will contest from National Assembly’s constituency NA-127, Lahore, while Sindhu will take part from NA-130, against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz supremo and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

Hafiz Saeed, who is in jail since July 17, 2019, for other charges, was sentenced in April 2022 by a special anti-terrorism court in Lahore, Pakistan, to a jail term of 33 years for “financing terrorism.” He is also designated a terrorist by the UN and EU for his involvement in the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people.

The PMML spokesperson, Tabish Qayyum, said that the party’s electoral symbol is the chair and that they are ready to make seat adjustments if and when contacted. He said that the party had taken part as Milli Muslim League, the political face of the banned Jamaat-ud-Dawa, in the 2018 general election but it failed to show any promising results from any constituency.

The 2024 general elections entered the next phase after the extended deadline for submitting nomination papers for national and provincial constituencies ended on Sunday evening. The final lists of eligible candidates will be made public by the Pakistan Election Commission when the vetting process is completed in the coming days.

According to reports, as many as 600 candidates filed nomination papers for Lahore’s 14 National Assembly and 30 provincial constituencies. Some of the prominent candidates include Maryam Nawaz, Hamza Shehbaz, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Imran Khan, Sardar Latif Khosa, Khawaja Saad Rafiq, and Shehbaz Sharif.