In Pakistan’s next general elections, scheduled on February 8, 2024, the Pakistan Markazi Muslim League (PMML), a party backed by terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed, has revealed its slate of candidates for every national and provincial assembly seat in Pakistan.
PMML, whose electoral sign is a chair, has also fielded Hafiz Mohammad Saeed’s son Talha Saeed from Lahore’s NA-127 seat. Hafiz Saeed is accused of being the mastermind behind the 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai.
According to Indian officials, Talha Saeed has been “actively involved in the planning and execution of attacks in India and on Indian interests in Afghanistan.”
The president of the PMML, Khalid Masood Sindhu, will face former prime minister Nawaz Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz in NA-130.
According to Khalid Sindhu, his party will be running for the majority of seats in the national and provincial assemblies. “We want to come to power not for corruption but to serve the people and make Pakistan an Islamic welfare state,” he stated.
However, he has denied that his party has any links with Hafiz Saeed, who has been in Pakistan jail since 2019. After being found guilty in several terror financing cases, the USA has placed a USD 10 million bounty on him.
In April 2022, a special anti-terrorist court in Lahore, sentenced Hafiz Saeed to 33 years in prison for “financing terrorism.” He had been in jail since July 17, 2019, for many offenses.
According to a Taipei-based expert cited by ANI, Saeed was neither indicted nor extradited over nearly two decades, despite being labeled a terrorist by the UN and EU in the 2000s.
