Daily Times

The United States is reportedly planning to add Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed’s newly-formed political partyand some other Pakistan-based groups to a list of organisations that ‘use terrorism to promote their agenda’. It was reported by Indian media this week that the Trump administration has accepted India’s request to label more Pakistani militant groups as globally designated terrorists.

The Pakistan government’s failure to stop extremist groups from carrying out political activities has time and again been termed problematic by analysts in Pakistan as well. It is not just the US that wants a halt to the activities of such groups, but Pakistanis within the country and outside have also been demanding the same for quite some time. That the authorities have failed to come up with a clear policy direction in this regard indicates that the long-held flawed policies have not completely been done away with.

Pakistan has been raising concerns about the influence of Indian lobby in Washington, but it is about time we realised that by giving political space to extremist elements, we are only vindicating India’s stance which would help get the latter diplomatically closer to the US. Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif had expressed the need for putting our own house in order, but nothing significant has since been done in this regard.

Three years ago, it was decided under the National Action Plan (NAP) that banned organisations would not be allowed to operate with a different name, but the practice continues till date. It is a known fact that Milli Muslim League is another name for the banned JuD, yet it continues to operate with impunity. The country’s civil and military leadership needs to act against all extremist groups regardless of their sectarian identities. They don’t have to do this to satisfy any external actor, but for the country’s own stability and security.

In this regard, the recent response by the Interior Ministry, in a petition pending hearing in the Islamabad High Court, is encouraging. The ministry has clarified that it considers MML as an offshoot of JuD and does not support its registration as a political party.

We hope that the ministry’s response is taken up as a consistent policy by all organs of the state. Meaning that there is no reason now for the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to let the MML register as a political party. Additionally, the ECP must review its vetting process to ensure that no extremist outfit is allowed to contest elections.  *

Published in Daily Times, December 24^th 2017.