The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Wednesday rejected the registration of Milli Muslim League (MML) as a political party. A four-member bench of the Commission, headed by its Sindh Member Abdul Ghaffar Soomro decided against allowing the MML to be registered as a political party.
The ECP had already rejected an earlier application by the MML to register it as a political party which was set aside by the IHC in March last. The court had asked the Commission to hear the MML before arriving at a decision. In its short order, the bench stated that the decision has been taken following the request of the Ministry of Interior which had expressed its reservations because of the party's alleged links with banned Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) leader Hafiz Saeed.
Earlier, Islamabad High Court (IHC) had asked the ECP to decide anew on the registration of MML as a political party. The MML's lawyer argued that the federal government has nothing to do with the registration of a political party and alleged that the PML-N has a personal vendetta with the party owing to its leader's links with foreign countries.
The MML stated that the ECP decision was in violation of the IHC orders and that the authorities were willfully taking away the right of representation to hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis by refusing to register the MML. The group, along with others, was later declared an affiliate of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) by the United States Treasury Department.
On March 9, 2018, the IHC had set aside the decision of the ECP to reject the application of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) political front MML for registration as a political party without providing an opportunity of hearing to it. The MML through its President Saifullah Khalid had approached the IHC and made the ECP and the interior secretary as respondents in the matter. Challenging the ECP's order of October 11, 2017, the petition described it unreasonable, illegal as well as against the Constitution and the law.
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