ISLAMABAD – JuD Chief Hafiz Saeed’s son and his son-in-law are among 265candidates fielded by the Jamaat-ud -Dawah for national and provincialassembly seats across Pakistan in the July 25 general election, vowing tomake the country a “citadel of Islam.”

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) denied registration of the MML asa political party following objections from the Interior Ministry whichargued that the entity was an offshoot of the JuD, led by Saeed, banned bya UN resolution.

With general elections approaching, the group decided to contest on theplatform of a little known “dormant” political entity, Allaha-u-AkbarTehreek (AAT), registered with the ECP.

The nomination papers of all the MML backed candidates have been acceptedby the Returning Officers during the scrutiny process, the MML said.

“The nomination papers of 265 candidates – 80 on National Assembly (NA) and185 on provincial assembly seats – including that of Hafiz Saeed’s sonHafiz Talha Saeed and son-in-law Hafiz Khalid Waleed have been accepted bythe Returning Officers,” a MML official said.

Talha is contesting from NA-91 seat from Sargodha (about 200-km fromLahore) while Khalid Waleed from NA-133 in Lahore on AAT’s election symbol’Chair’, he said.Sargodha is the home town of Hafiz Saeed.

Also, our candidates are contesting on Lahore’s four NA seats and 15 PunjabAssembly seats, apart from these, the MML-backed candidates would becontesting on Islamabad and Rawalpindi NA seats, he said.

“Similarly, the MML-backed candidates have been fielded in Karachi,interior Sindh and Kyber-Pakhtunkhawa and other parts of the country,” headded.

MML President Saifullah Khalid said that his party would not leave vacuumin July 25 elections for the secular forces as the country was “created inthe name of Islam.”

“We have entered the political arena not to get power, but to fightcorruption, eliminate politics of opportunism, strengthening ideology ofPakistan and making the country citadel of Islam,” he said.