Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar ul Haq Kakar said that taking up premiership was both a responsibility and a test. He added that things are difficult in terms of electricity bilsl but that there is no crisis in Pakistan.

Talking to senior journalists in Islamabad, the PM added that while the issue exists, it is also being ‘magnified’ as all political parties are campaigning.

Kakar also said that the ‘best’ people from each field had been chosen for the caretaker cabinet so the challenges Pakistan was facing could be grappled with effectively.

He said that Pakistan is facing both economic and security problems. He added that it was important to daignose a problem correctly to be able to deal with it effectively.

He said that he wonders if the cognizance of the problmes he has gained is shared by other major players in society as well.

Kakar said that he had seen the protests over the electricity bills across the country. He added that it was wrong to think that the government did not recognise the problem and was here to ‘suck the blood’ of the public.

He added that his number had been shared on Twitter leading to tens of thousands of messages arriving on his phone.

The PM said that loadshedding was a serious problem in the 1990s and the government had turned to Independent Power Producers to fix the problems. He said that today everything about the power sector was flawed.

He also said that while protests continued in many cities over electricity bills, the same cities also had cases of electricity theft.

Kakar said that the economy was in shambles because non-productive sectors had been incentivised while they contributed nothing to the economy.

He said that narratives were being created in mainstream and digital media that promoted despndency and painted a picture that the Pakistani society was about to collapse.

He added that even the security challenges being faced by pakistan were shown through a distorted lens.

Kakar said that no terrorist organisation had the power to take over Pakistani territory and were limited to hit-and-run and sabotage events only.

He added that Pakistan is in ‘safe hands’.

He said that elections were the responsibility of the Election Commission of Pakistan but he hoped that free and fair elections would take place so the caretaker government could respectfully go home.