The embattled political party Milli Muslim League (MML) seems to be distancing itself from its extremist origins after the Islamabad High Court’s decision to finally accept their plea for registration as a political party.
“By the grace of God we have been vindicated from the baseless allegations that the election commission levelled against us”, the party’s leadership said speaking to Pakistan Today.
“I would like to congratulate the entire nation on the court decision in favour of the MML ordering the ECP to register MML as a political party”, added party’s president Saifullah Khalid.
The MML, whose candidate bagged 6000 votes in last year’s NA 120 by-election, has been considered the political face of listed terrorist Hafiz Saeed’s group the Jammat-ud-Daawa (JuD) ever since its inception in August 2017. During their first electoral outing, the group had used posters bearing Hafiz Saeed’s pictures for their campaign and was also founded by JuD stalwarts.
However, the party seems to be trying to distance itself from these roots, and claims that it will now be the frontline against extremism.
“This order is a victory for the constitution and proves that we have no links to any extremist organisation or person”, added MML Information Secretary Taabish Qayyum.
“Almost every political party of Pakistan has members having links with banned outfits, but the MML is the only party which has not even single member with any links to terrorism or extremism activities,” he added.
The information secretary also denied the claim that the party was a brainchild of certain group or people, saying that they would soon be revealing their manifesto and people from all over Pakistan would flock to join their ranks.
Responding to questions about whether they were trying shifting the political climate towards a more hardline approach, he said that the court’s decision proved that this was not the case.
“You will see that the MML is furthest away from terrorism. In fact, the scholars and politicians that are a part of us have dedicated to fighting their entire lives against extremism”, he said.
The party leadership also took on the sitting government, claiming that the government had once again been proven wrong and tyrannical by the courts, and that the Interior Ministry no longer had a foot to stand on.
The MML had originally been declined registration and banned by the ECP after the by-election in KP constituency NA-4, on the advice of a letter sent to the ECP by the Interior Ministry.
However, Justice Aamir Farooq on Thursday invalidated the ECP’s order of ban on the MML and instructed the commission to register the entity as a political party. Earlier, the party had filed a writ petition in the IHC against the ECP’s refusal to register it. It is expected that the MML will be officially registered and allotted an electoral symbol in the coming days.