India has also taken note of reports of Saeed's son Talha contesting elections in Pakistan and said the "mainstreaming" of radical terror outfits in the neighbouring country is nothing new and that it has been part of its State policy for a long time.
The JuD has been declared as a foreign terrorist organisation by the United States in June 2014.
Saeed had confirmed that his organisation Jammat-ud-Dawah would contest the 2018 general elections under the banner of the Milli Muslim League.
The EU too urged Pak to ensure "safe and secure conditions" for the polls.
The founder of Lashkar-e-Tayiba also vowed to continue supporting Kashmiris.
Pervez Musharraf is contemplating a political front with jihadi groups to contest Pakistan's next election. Should the jihadi groups win a few seats, terrorist outfits will gain legitimacy in Pakistan, warns Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
The party, political observers said, seems as an effort to set up a front which is acceptable to moderate Pakistanis.
The 74-year-old retired general had last month said that he was the biggest supporter of the LeT and its founder Hafiz Saeed
'Facebook's act is a gross violation of its own policy'
'Illegal aggression of India on East Pakistan... Why Pakistan is avoiding advocating for Kashmiri people' written by "Professor Hafiz Mohammad Saeed" appeared in Daily Dunya (an Urdu publication of Dunya media group of Mian Amer Mahmood) on Sunday.
The interior ministry had opposed enlisting of the MML as a political party, arguing that it is an offshoot of the banned JuD.
While Sharif and his daughter, Maryam, have been sent to jail on corruption charges, a designated terrorist, Saeed, is not only free but actively seeks votes for the elections while targeting India and the United States.
Hafiz Saeed has confirmed that his organisation Jammat-ud-Dawa would contest the 2018 general elections under the banner of the MML.
"I want to remind folks, we have a $10 million Reward for Justice programme that would reward for information that would bring him to justice. So I want to make that clear, so that everybody knows -- $10 million, out for this guy. And we would certainly have concerns about him running for office," said State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert.
The JuD will contest the election on the platform of a little known "dormant" political entity, Allaha-u-Akbar Tehreek.
The decision was taken after the ECP again dismissed the MML's application for registration on Wednesday.
The JuD, a front for the Lashkar-e-Tayiba militant group that carried out the deadly 2008 Mumbai attack, launched its political front Milli Muslim League, but it has not been yet registered with the Election Commission of Pakistan. With general elections approaching, the group decided to contest on the platform of a "dormant" political entity, Allaha-u-Akbar Tehreek, which is registered with the ECP.
"Make no mistake: whatever LeT chooses to call itself, it remains a violent terrorist group. The US supports all efforts to ensure that LeT does not have a political voice until it gives up violence as a tool of influence," said Nathan A Sales, Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the Department of State.
If the parliamentary representation of radical Islamic parties goes up dramatically in 2018, what will this do to Pakistan's army?
The perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai attack, who shot dead 166 people, had confessed to details that should have been enough to hang him, but Pakistan enjoyed his anti-India rhetoric and let him spread his tentacles. A revealing excerpt from Khaled Ahmed's Pakistan's Terror Conundrum.
'The Modi government would chaff at the very idea of holding talks with Pakistan, facilitated by Washington and under close US monitoring, when the 2019 poll is sailing into view.' 'But in politics and diplomacy, there may be moments when drinking from the chalice of poison is necessary,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
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