Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, the interim prime minister of Pakistan, has dismissed the idea that the nation’s ferocious military may rig the election to prevent the party of imprisoned former president Imran Khan from winning as “absolutely absurd.” The Election Commission, not the military, will run the election next year, and Khan handpicked the commission’s current chairman, so “why would he turn in any sense of the word against him?” said Kakar in an interview with The Associated Press (AP) on Friday.
When Kakar was chosen to serve as the interim prime minister, he was a little-known first-term senator from Balochistan, the region of Pakistan with the lowest population and level of development. After being selected as acting prime minister by departing PM Shehbaz Sharif and opposition leader Raza Riaz to supervise the elections and administer the nation until a new government is chosen, he resigned from his seat as a senator last month.
The top electoral board declared on Thursday that the vote, which was originally scheduled for November under the constitution, would instead take place during the final week of January. Regarding the general election, the interim prime minister said that his administration “will provide all the assistance, financial, security or other related requirements” once the commission determines a precise election date.
When asked whether he would urge judges to reverse Khan’s conviction so that he could run in the elections, the prime minister replied he wouldn’t meddle with the judiciary’s choices. The court, according to him, should not be used “as a tool for any political ends.”
According to Kakar, “We are not after anyone on a personal vendetta.””However, absolutely, we’ll make sure the legislation is proper. Imran Khan or any other politician who disobeys national laws by their political conduct must be held accountable, and the rule of law must be restored. That is not the same as… political prejudice.
In an allusion to the unrest that erupted in the wake of Khan’s first arrest in May, he said that free elections could be held without Khan or the hundreds of members of his party who are now imprisoned for crimes including vandalism and arson. The thousands of members of Khan’s party who stayed away from illegal activity, according to Kakar, “will be running the political process, they will be participating in the elections.”
Some of Khan’s followers have suggested that there is de facto military control in Pakistan, saying the Pakistani military has been behind the rise and fall of administrations. These charges, according to Kakar, who is claimed to have strong links to the military, are “part and parcel of our political culture,” to which he pays little heed. He described the working relationship between his administration and the military as “very smooth,” as well as “very open and candid.”
I won’t dispute that there are issues with civil-military ties, he remarked, but there are many other causes for the imbalance. He said that Pakistan’s civil institutions have “deteriorated in terms of performance for the last many decades” whereas the military is disciplined, has organizational skills, and has improved over the last four decades after taking office for one month.
Instead of undermining the present military organization, Kakar argued that the answer is to progressively enhance the functioning of the civilian institutions. “That’s not going to solve any of our problems,” he said. Regarding the deterioration of Pakistan’s relations with its neighbor Afghanistan, Kakar said that “there are some serious security challenges” coming from that country, citing the Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, the Islamic State, and other extremist organizations that sometimes compete for power.
When asked whether the government had asked the Taliban to turn over the TTP leadership and fighters, he said that they are in communication with Kabul’s administration, “but there is nothing specific which I can share with you.” The Taliban-led government in Afghanistan has not received recognition from the international world.
The details of a gathering of regional leaders to discuss the incentives and behavioral adjustments the Taliban would need to make in order to be considered for recognition have not yet been decided, according to Kakar, but “I think we’re heading toward that milestone.” He said that the regional forum should seek out a common strategy before attempting to garner wider support and communicating it to the Taliban.
Since Khan was ousted from power in April of last year as a result of a vote of no-confidence in Parliament, Pakistan has been grappling with one of the greatest economic crises in its history as well as growing political unrest. He was detained at the beginning of August on suspicion of corruption and given a three-year prison term that was subsequently suspended, however he is still incarcerated.
