JuD chief Hafiz Saeed launches intense election campaign across Pak

Mumbai attack mastermind and banned Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed has launched an intense election campaign in different parts of Pakistan urging people to vote for his candidates in the July 25 general elections to safeguard the two-nation ideology and avert a water crisis.

Saeed inaugurated the election offices of the Milli Muslim League (MML), the political wing of the JuD, in Lahore, Islamabad, Sahiwal, Sargodha, Faisalabad and Jhang and addressed rallies there during the last one week.

The appeal he is making in his speeches is "vote for those who can stop India from building dams on Pakistani rivers so that Pakistan do not face water crisis in days to come, safeguard the two-nation ideology and help Kashmiris to get freedom and make the country a strong citadel of Islam".

Saeed also promises to provide a "new political leadership' that will change the destiny of Pakistan.

"We have decided to enter the political arena to make Pakistan stronger. We are not running our election campaign in a conventional way," he said while addressing the MML activists at the JuD headquarters in Lahore today.

He said politicians have made politics a "profitable business," but the MML will not.

"We will not do business after getting elected. We have to fight Pakistan's case. We have to stop foreign interference in our matters and liberate its influence," he said, asking the people not to vote for those (PML-N) that did not stop India from building dams on Pakistani rivers.

As the MML has failed to get registered as a political party with the Election Commission of Pakistan, its candidates are contesting on the platform of a little known outfit Allah-u-Akbar Tahreek (AAT).

Hafiz Saeed 's son, son-in-law and 13 women are among 265 JuD candidates contesting on AAT platform in July 25 general elections on national and provincial assemblies seats across Pakistan.

Saeed, who also carries a USD 10 million American bounty on his head for his role in terror activities, is not contesting the election.

The JuD had formed MML when Saeed was under detention by the Punjab government in Lahore. Saeed and his four aides - Abdullah Ubaid, Malik Zafar Iqbal, Abdul Rehman Abid and Qazi Kashif Hussain - were placed under house arrest in Lahore on January 30 under anti- terrorism act.

The JuD was declared as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US in June 2014. The group is a front for the Lashkar-e-Taiba terror group that carried out the deadly 2008 Mumbai attack.