Pakistani militant groups, banned by President Pervez Musharraf, will approach the Supreme Court seeking the lifting of restrictions on them, former Lashkar-e-Toiba chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed has said.

“The ban was a step that the retired general took to please America and now it is clear that the people have rejected his policies,” said Saeed, who now heads the Jamaat-ud-Dawa.

He criticised Musharraf’s Kashmir policy and alleged that a “U-turn” made by the previous government on the Kashmir issue had badly damaged the “Kashmiri freedom struggle”. All the options that Musharraf had offered on the Kashmir issue had not been responded to by India, he claimed.

“It is necessary now that the new Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani review the country’s Kashmir policy, immediately change the stance and talk openly to resolve the issue,” Saeed told The News.

Saeed also asked Musharraf to step down as the mandate given by the people in the general election had been “against him and America”. The Lashker-e-Toiba, which is involved in militant activities in India, is among the groups that were banned by Musharraf following pressure from the US.

Saeed demanded the release of scientist AQ Khan too, under house arrest for the past four years after admitting to proliferating nuclear secrets. He said Khan was a “victim who has suffered a great deal and should immediately be released and his honour restored”.

Saeed also said Khan should be made the next president of the country. Saeed, however, denied any contact with the Pakistan Army.