LAHORE – The Milli Muslim League (MML), political branch of the bannedJamaatud Dawa (JuD), will contest the general elections under the umbrellaof Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek.

Hafiz Saeed led MML’s registration was denied earlier by ElectionCommission of Pakistan.

The Ministry of Interior had written a letter to the election body showingreservations on the registration of MML as a political party and asked itto ban the party.

Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek fielded 260 candidates to show their political powerin general elections which are scheduled to held on July 25.

The final list has 79 candidates for the National Assembly and 181 for fourprovincial assemblies.

The list includes the names of Hafiz Talha Saeed, son of Hafiz MuhammadSaeed, (for NA-91). Hafiz Saeed’s son-in-law, Khalid Waleed, is a candidatein PP-167.

Interestingly, the list has 10 female candidates for general seats alongwith three for reserved seats.

Party spokesman, Ahmed Nadeem Awan, expressed that apart from 5 per centquota for female candidates made mandatory by the Election Act, the partyhad given tickets to women out of conviction, not compulsion.

The party has fielded 36 National Assembly candidates from Punjab, 29 fromSindh, 28 from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 14 from Balochistan and eight fromFata. It has put up five candidates in Karachi and four in Lahore.

The AAT is listed at number 10 in ECP’s list of approved parties. It isheaded by Dr Mian Ihsan Bari from Bhawalpur. Bari’s official title in theparty is “Adnaa Khadim-e-Pakistan” (A humble servant of Pakistan). Theparty has already been allotted ‘chair’ as election symbol.