The issues of Palestine and Kashmir have a deep contribution in radicalising our population, caretaker Prime Minister Awnaarul Haq Kakar has said as more than 500 people have been killed in Gaza in retaliatory strikes from Israel.

“Pakistan’s policy is part of the continuity. It is not like the interim government has a new policy related to Palestine,” he said in an interview with a group of anchorpersons and vloggers that was aired on PTV News on Tuesday.

He was asked about the country’s policy in the escalation of the conflict after Hamas fired a barrage of rockets into Israel. In response, Israel has launched air strikes and as per reports hit residential and refugee camps.

He went on to add that the interim government was also following the stance that the state has been following through an institutional arrangement.

The government has a stance that it considers Israel as an occupying country and considered Palestine as oppressed, he said, adding: “It is the war of the cruel and oppressed.”

It was more than a war between two nations that were in a state, Kakar said and explained that Jews as a nation were oppressed in Hitler’s Germany during World War 2. But such a tendency changed when they came out of it and formed an occupied state in the form of a “Zionist state”, the interim PM added.

Kakar stated that Palestinians were now oppressed.

“Now the biggest party in it is Palestine itself. We, as a nation and society, will need that the first right to decide about their political future lies with the Palestinians [as] what they think their future should be. They give a chance to peace and in what way,” he said and explained that Palestinians as a nation have found answers to such questions.

In this regard, the interim PM added that a two-state solution has been suggested over the past two decades. He lamented that Israel was denying such a solution because the larger defects of the Middle East related to Palestine were “getting more complicated day by day”.

He said the issues of Palestine and Kashmir were a radicalisation element in the larger Muslim population. “They have a deep contribution in radicalising our population and where religion is used as a tool in politics in that both incidents are deeply linked.”

Kakar was of the view that the solution to the aforementioned two issues had a pivotal role in the larger global community whenever they wanted that civilisations should be in peaceful co-existence.

Future after interim PM

Kakar stated that there was no obstacle to participating in the political spectrum of the country’s post-interim premiership.

“Shall I do it or not? It will be a very strong temptation for me to resist it and have a non-political role for me and not play a participatory role in politics,” he said and added that he saw a political role for himself after his retirement as caretaker prime minister.

“It is possible I would be an office bearer of any political party,” he said and explained that shaping a political opinion was the biggest responsibility of any politician.

The interim prime minister said that the politicians should go for policy formulation and play a lead role in opinion-making in society. “So I envisage that role for myself and I will be part and parcel of the political system.”

Rumours

He lamented that rumours were rife after his plane landed in France and Saudi Arabia after his trip to Washington to attend the United Nations General Assembly.

“The reason for staying in France was that our plane after eight hours needed refueling and for refueling when you cross the Atlantic. You have to choose a destination in Europe that you have refueling then you leave. It was not about food or any initiation,” he said.

He lamented that such reports in the digital space compromised the constructive criticism that is necessary.

Kakar spoke about news outlets misquoting him and the country’s ill-governance towards matters related to electricity and recovery.

When asked, the caretaker prime minister said that there should be superior conduct in order to have civilian supremacy.

“Supremacy of your vision, integrity, and capacity to service delivery will enable you to establish supremacy. If they are not they will indulge in false ego fights and such attempts have been made in Pakistan.”

According to Kakar, there were two approaches: lead and conquer. “Whenever we have tried to conquer then we get defeated because you don’t have those tools. On one side, there is organised and disciplined force and on another hand, the political parties do not even have their cadre to conquer.”