Kakar vows to conduct free, fair elections without opposition or favour to any group

ISLAMABAD (HRNW) Caretaker Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar has said that there will be no opposition or support to a particular group at the administrative level in the upcoming general elections in the country.

In an exclusive interview with a Turkish media outlet, the caretaker premier said: “I assure that the election process will be transparent and free.

“We are entering into the electoral process; the time span which has been given to the interim government, is according to the law and the constitution,” Kakar continued.

He said delimitation of constituencies afresh was a constitutional demand, and “we should abide by this regulation if we believe in supremacy of the constitution.”

Regarding May 9 mayhem, he said people have the right to express their sentiments, but without resorting to violence. “We can’t allow vandalism in the name of protest. Such kind of situation is not acceptable under any democratic system.”

About alleged US involvement in the ouster of the PTI government, the caretaker PM said many party leaders retracted from that allegation.

He claimed that in some Asian states, political leaders sometimes do such acts for gaining popularity. “As a responsible caretaker government, we ensure that no one can meddle with our domestic affairs.”

He said the PTI chief was ousted constitutionally, without any military intervention.

Shedding light on the civil-military relations, he said Pakistani political leaders had political alliance with military for their own political interests and once they are out of the power they start criticizing the institution to shift the onus of their own failure.

He said the only institution that has the organizational capability left with us is military and anyone who is dealing with governance has to rely on it to meet the challenges.

On relations with Afghanistan, he said “we have been facing such attacks almost for fifteen years and we are trying to counter it by kinetic and non-kinetic measures and we have been successful to manage that to a certain level.”

He said we are dealing with different layers of authorities in Afghanistan and some are spoiling the peace. “Some banned groups like TTP have training camps in Afghanistan, which is a point of concern for us.”

He expressed the hope that Islamabad would engage with Kabul despite some challenges in relationships as it is in common interest of both the nations.

About Pakistan-India relations, he said “we are open for a meaningful dialogue with all our neighbours.

“We do want peace with India but only peace with justice. Being the so-called biggest democracy of the world, India should resolve the issue of Kashmir on the basis of UN resolutions,” the caretaker premier concluded.