British journalist Christina Lamb has wondered whether caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar’s claim regarding free media in Pakistan was true or not.

In an interview with CNBC on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum on Wednesday, Kakar claimed that the media in Pakistan is “freer” than in the West.

“If you do the comparison, the Western media probably is under stricter regulations than the media in Pakistan,” he told Dan Murphy when asked about is the media free and fair in Pakistan

But Lamb did not think so as she wanted to know why foreign journalists were allegedly not getting visas to cover elections.

“Media in Pakistan freer than in the West, claims its caretaker PM Anwaarul Kakar - so how come we can’t get visas to cover the elections?” she said in a post on X.

Lamb is the Chief Foreign Correspondent for the Sunday Times of London, her postings have included South Africa, Pakistan, Brazil and Washington, according to her website. The British journalist has reported from Afghanistan and Peshawar where she covered the mujaheddin fighting the Soviet Union.

She has written nine books including the bestselling The Africa House and I Am Malala.

Last month, EU Ambassador Reena Cuenca said that the European Union would send a small mission of election experts for the February 8 election in Pakistan instead of a full-fledged election observer mission.

“An election expert mission is different from election observation mission. An expert mission is really made up of people who do nothing but monitor elections. They do not give a political assessment whether the elections have been fair and do not give recommendations,” she told Shaukat Piracha of Aaj News.

She added that the findings of the mission would not be made public without the government’s approval.

German Ambassador to Pakistan Alfred Grannas had stated that it was difficult to send a full-fledged mission for election due to the paucity of time.