Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar has clarified that the interim government has no favourites, amid several parties’ allegations that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz was being favoured in the interim setup.
“I don’t think that on the behalf of the caretaker, there is any sort of intention that someone should not be denied field or make them uneven,” he said in an interview with Shahzad Iqbal on his show Naya Pakistan which was aired on Geo News on Saturday.
In the recent past, the PPP has demanded a level playing field for all political parties and many leaders from the party have claimed that they were not being provided space to run campaigns in Punjab. They have claimed that bureaucracy was campaigning for the PML-N.
Moreover, the PTI has also raised a similar issue and lamented that they do not even have a playing field at a time when political parties were preparing for the February 8 elections.
Kakar went on to add that different political generate their narrative and at times use the “victim card”—that the incumbent government’s attitude towards them was not appropriate or a level-playing field was not provided—when they go into the election mode.
“Objectively speaking I don’t think that the caretaker government was giving any such favour or doing any work which will discriminate anyone party negatively,” Kakar said.
When asked about PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s allegations of facilitating the PML-N, he shunned such a perception and added that the interim setup has “comparatively better relations” with all parties.
He added that there were no restrictions on any party related to electioneering, whether it was the PTI or the PPP.
“We will ensure transparent elections,” the prime minister said, “there is no bar on PTI when it comes to election-related activities.”
While speaking about a query related to the billions of dollars of investment by the government, he said that it was a long process and asked did the $52 billion of investment announced by China landed in the country three months after the announcement of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor 10 years ago.
“These things have to happen in a natural way,” he said.
Kakar claimed that several people were making attempts to make the Special Investment Facilitation Council controversial.
“In the coming weeks, we will start hearing good news. We are going to sign MoUs in UAE, Kuwait, and later Saudi Arabia and other countries will also come. The realisation of projects has started and I hope that a sizeable and impactful figure will be decided in our government and it will continue,” the interim PM said.
“The SIFC is a professional initiative. This is running under the best international practices and it is the answer to long-term woes of Pakistan,”
Kakar said that he would not appear in the Islamabad High Court in a case pertaining to the missing Baloch students.
“I will be abroad due to my participation in the COP 28. Obviously, as the prime minister, there are several commitments. Apart from this, we will ensure our representation in other relevant forums,” he said.
The IHC has summoned the prime minister, relevant caretaker ministers, and secretaries for interior and defence, if the more than 50 missing Baloch students were not recovered by Wednesday. It is the day when they have been asked to appear in court.
To some extent, he defended caretaker Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti’s statement that Pakistan had the lowest number of missing persons in the region.
“A long arm struggle is going on in the provinces and these are those groups that commit genocide and murder unarmed people and army men. Sometimes it seems that some people try to become their political mouthpiece for the appeasement of their violence and ignore this aspect of reality. Amidst this, accusations are made that state institutions might be involved in enforced disappearance,” he said.
