Jihadi outfits banned in Pak to plead before SC to lift ban

Islamabad, Apr 8 : The jihadi organisations in Pakistan which were banned by President Pervez Musharraf are mulling moving the country's Supreme Court pleading lifting of the ban. They argue that they were banned by Musharraf simply to please the US, and now, after the last general elections on February 18, his policies stand rejected.

A former head of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), also a banned organization, said this.

"The ban was a step that the retired General took only to please America and now it is abundantly clear that people have rejected his policies," The News quoted Hafiz Saeed who was chief of the Lashkar and now heads Jamatud Dawa Islami, as saying.

Criticising Musharraf's Kashmir policy, he alleged that the "U-turn" taken by the Musharraf regime on Kashmir had badly damaged the cause of the Kashmiris' freedom struggle.

The Jihadi leader said that Pakistan's detained nuclear scientist, Dr AQ Khan was a "victim" who has already suffered a great deal and should immediately be released and his honour restored.

Answering a question, he said he would urge Musharraf to step down because the mandate given by the masses in the general elections is against him and America and he should accept the verdict given by the masses.

The Kashmiri leadership and the Kashmiri people are disappointed because of the previous government's Kashmir policy and they have lost their trust and support, he said. All the options that General Musharraf had been offering on the Kashmir issue have not been responded to by India, he said.

"It is necessary now that the newly-elected Prime Minister, Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, should review the country's Kashmir policy, immediately change the stance and talk openly to resolve this issue," Saeed said.

ANI