Interim Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar has refuted reports of downplaying a wheel-jam strike against exorbitant power bills.

“This is because of our friends from journalism that they associated the jam-strike protest with me and spread it in the whole of Pakistan and it is obvious that this perception was built,” he was quoted as saying in a clip shared by Geo News on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Saturday.

When asked by the host if he didn’t say such words, Kakar replied that the 40-minute recording of a meeting with journalists was available and he was ready to pay the fine at any cost to those protesting if any word out of “wheel, jam, and strike” were used by him.

He was on journalist Saleem Safi’s show Jirga. The news channel shared a clip from the interview.

He said that a decision was supposed to be taken along with provinces in reply to a query on early closures of markets. Kakar added that soon there would be an implementation pertaining to the energy conservation plan.

“I am trying to not make any final announcement because our whole finance and power teams are looking into the nitty-gritty things to suggest a short-term solution in a way that we don’t have to revoke,” the interim PM said.

On Friday, Kakar said things were difficult in terms of electricity bills but that there was no crisis in Pakistan.

While the issue exists, it was also being “magnified” as all political parties were campaigning, he told reporters in Islamabad.

Thousands of traders shuttered their shops on Saturday, striking over soaring energy and fuel bills stirring widespread discontent ahead of national elections.

Meanwhile, interim Information Minister Murtaza Solangi in a separate video shared by state broadcasters on X, formerly known as Twitter, said that at no point did the caretaker PM term the higher electricity bills as a “non-issue”, something he claimed a section of the media has been “misreporting about”.

The PM said the reports of chaos and anarchy were not a serious law and order issue, but it was an issue. He was of the view that this issue was being “magnified” amid political parties who were eyeing upcoming elections.

Solangi said that the interim PM did not say the issue of electricity was a “non-issue”. He did not say that it was such a matter because of which people should not be worried, Solangi added.