Imran can contest elections if law allows, says PM

*Click the Title above to view complete article on https://www.nation.com.pk/.

2023-09-27T07:02:42+05:00 Agencies

Anwaarul Haq Kakar warns culprits involved in May 9 incidents will be brought to book n Caretaker PM says his govt will ensure no organisational or institutional involvement in favour of any political party.

 

LONDON  -  Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar Tuesday said that the murder of Sikh activists is the result of growing state-sponsored intoler­ance under Hindutva ideology by the BJP-led Indian government.

Interacting with the media persons in London, he said Pakistan remained a victim of the Indian state-spon­sored terrorism, especially the Ba­lochistan has been heavily affected due to the terrorism of India. 

He added now other nations are also being suffered due to the nefari­ous designs of India.

Highlighting plight of minorities in India, the prime minister expressed dismay that the Muslims, Sikhs, Christians cannot live in India as fully qualified citizens. He said several movements such as Cow Vigilan­te groups are being encouraged in India to suppress minorities. To a question, he said a policy is being devised to export the semi-skilled and unskilled workers to the European nations and a compre­hensive discussion has been held with the British Foreign Minister in this re­gard. About the upcoming elections, he said Election Commission will soon an­nounce the polling date. Replying to an­other question, the prime minister said culprits involved in the incidents of 9th May will be brought to book.

He categorically denied meeting any political leader in London and said he was there to pursue government matters. Calling economic issues the biggest chal­lenge for the caretaker government, the prime minister said the privatisation of some power Discos was being processed. 

The International Monetary Fund has not suggested the government to go for privatisation, rather it was essential to save the public money being injected into the loss-making state-owned enterprises. 

He said the government wanted peo­ple to create wealth which would enable it to generate revenue through taxation. The prime minister said his words about the elections were being misreported as he could not foretell as who would be taking part in the elections. 

He said if the law allowed Imran Khan to contest the elections, he should do so and if not, this would have nothing to do with his government. However, this would not happen that a deputy commis­sioner would put someone behind bars to keep him out of the electoral process. 

Asked about the issue of an injection that affected the vision of many people in Punjab, he said the injection had been removed from medical stores and as­sured that the criminals would be pun­ished as the probe was in process.

‘FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS”

Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar Tuesday vowed to conduct free and fair elections, ensuring no or­ganisational or institutional involve­ment in favour of any party.

In an exclusive interview with for­eign media, he said we are entering into the electoral process and the time span, which has been given to the interim gov­ernment, is according to the law and the constitution. The prime minister said delimitation of constituencies is a con­stitutional demand, and we should abide by this regulation if we believe in su­premacy of the constitution.

To a question about 9th May incidents, he said people have the right to express their sentiments under prescribed law, but we can’t allow vandalism in the name of protest or if people are going violent then that kind of situation is not accept­able under any democratic system.

Regarding alleged US involvement in PTI Chief’s ousting from the power, he said PTI members have retrieved from that al­legation. He said in some Asian states, po­litical leaders sometimes do such acts for populist reasons. He said as a responsible caretaker government, we ensure that no one can meddle with our domestic affairs. He further said the PTI chief was ousted constitutionally and there was no mili­tary coup against him. Shedding light on the civil-military relations in Pakistan, An­waarul Haq Kakar said Pakistani political leaders had political alliance with military for their own political interests and once they are out of the power they start crit­icising the institution to shift the onus of their own failure.

He said the only institution that has the organisational capability left with us is military and anyone who is dealing with governance has to rely on it to meet the challenges. Talking about terrorist at­tacks and relations with Afghanistan, the prime minister said we have been facing such attacks almost for fifteen years and we are trying to counter it by kinetic and non-kinetic measures and we have been successful to manage that to a certain lev­el. He said we are dealing with different layers of authorities in Afghanistan and some are spoiling the peace. He said some banned organizations like TTP have train­ing camps in Afghanistan, which is a point of concern for us. He expressed hope that we will engage with Afghans despite some challenges in our relationships as it is in common interest of both the nations.

View More News