JUD's newly established Milli Muslim League party came in third in a by-election in Punjab last week, securing more votes than Pakistan's People's Party contender did.
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| Pakistan police offers seen providing security to internationally wanted terrorist Hafiz Saeed, chief of banned Jama'at-ud-Dawah (JuD) (AP photo) |
Source/Credit: Voice of America
By Noor Zahid/Madeeha Anwar | September 30, 2017
As international pressure is mounting on Islamabad to do more against militant groups operating from its soil, some militant groups are rebranding themselves as political parties.
"The Pakistan military is allowing militant, virulently anti-Indian groups to enter the political process to enable a vocal political voice against any Pakistani civilian warming relations with India," Thomas Lynch, a research fellow at the National Defense University in Washington, told VOA.
"The aboveground voices of [Hafiz Mohammad] Saeed and [Kashmiri militant leader Fazlur Rehman] Khalil as political figures will meld with their enduring role as leaders of virulently anti-India armed groups in a way that will further constrain Pakistani political leaders from easily undertaking any moves toward rapprochement with India," Lynch added.
New party
Saeed, the leader of Jamaat-ud-Dawa group (JUD), which has been designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. and is widely considered a front group for Lashkar-e-Taiba terror group, launched a new political party last month.
Saeed was accused of masterminding Mumbai's 2008 terror attacks that killed 166 people, including six Americans.
The U.S. government has offered a $10 million reward for information leading to his arrest.
JUD's newly established Milli Muslim League party came in third in a by-election in Punjab last week, securing more votes than Pakistan's People's Party contender did.
Lynch said he thought that without the military's blessings, the militants-turned-political parties cannot thrive.
"Nothing of consequence inside Pakistan security, politics or economics happens without the Pakistan military's concurrence, either by direct support or indirect acquiescence," Lynch said.
"This mainstreaming of longtime militant-terrorist groups led by Saeed and Khalil is of consequence [and] therefore must be supported by the Pakistan military," he added.
Last week's by-election was also contested by the Tehreek Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah, a party of the followers of Mumtaz Qadri, who was sentenced to death after being convicted of murdering Punjab's Governor Salman Taseer, the same person he was paid to guard.
Qadri killed the governor in 2011 because he advocated for reforms in the country's controversial blasphemy laws.
The two parties of militants-turned-politicians reportedly secured 11 percent of the total votes in last week's election.
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