Pakistan's interior ministry has called for the electoral commission to bar from politics a new party backed by a terrorist with a $10 million US bounty on his head, a government document seen by British news agency, Reuters, showed on Thursday.
In a letter dated September 22, the ministry recommended that the Election Commission of Pakistan reject the newly formed Milli Muslim League's (MML) application to become an official party as it is "affiliated" with Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT), a militant group blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people.
"The registration of MML is not supported," the ministry said in the two-page document.
Spokesmen for the election commission and the interior ministry acknowledged the correspondence and confirmed that the letter was authentic.
The US has designated LeT founder Hafiz Saeed, who currently heads the Jamaat-ud-Dawa Islamic charity, a terrorist. It views him as the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attacks and has offered a $10 million reward for information leading to his imprisonment.
Saeed is currently under house arrest. Pakistan's reluctance to press charges against him has been a sore point in relations with Washington and India over the past decade.
The ministry said MML is "ideologically of the same hue" as LeT and its affiliated charities Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and the Falah-e-Insanyat Foundation (FIF).
Tabish Qayyum, a spokesman for the MML, said in a statement that the ministry's letter was unlawful.
"MML isn't a bus or truck which needs registration," he said, denying that MML had links with any banned militant group.
The ministry's stance appears at odds with what political sources and a retired army general have said is a plan proposed by the military's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) to 'mainstream' some Pakistan-based anti-Indian militant groups as part of deradicalisation efforts by bringing them into politics.
The interior ministry's letter was written a week after MML caused a stir by winning 5% of votes in a parliamentary by-election in Lahore on September 17.
In the Lahore by-election, Yaqoob Sheikh, who swears loyalty to Saeed, stood as an independent candidate but was backed by MML and had Saeed's colleagues running his campaign.
Saeed's portraits adorned posters promoting Sheikh, who the United States has also designated a terrorist and a senior LeT commander.
