New York: Caretaker Prime Minister Anwarul Haq Kakar said that Pakistan is soon entering election phase and no particular group will be favoured or opposed during polls.

Kakar said this in an interview to Turkish TV channel, TRT. He remarked that civilian institutions have been performing poorly for last three to four decades. And when there is poor governance, he went on to say, only institution that has organisational capability is military.

“Anyone who is leading government has to rely on them to do delivery part,” he stressed while talking about reasons for supposed imbalance in civil-military relationship. He then suggested that to resolve issue of military’s meddling in affairs of state, “We need to increase capacity of civilian institutions”.

Caretaker PM remarked that Pakistani politicians have had “Political marital alliance” with military “For their own specific interests”. “They have all sailed together with same military to attain political power. And once they are out of power, this is favourite mantra to criticise and shift onus of their own flaws in terms of governance as an imbalance between civil-military relationship.”

 He vowed that he will make sure election process is fair and transparent. He said that rights of every political party will be protected, adding that peaceful protest is everyone’s right in democracy. PM Kakar said Election Commission cannot undertake any unconstitutional step.

He told interviewer that PTI Chairman Imran Khan himself backed off from his narrative about US conspiracy behind toppling of his government. Sometimes, politicians adopt such stance to garner public support, he maintained.

Published in The Daily National Courier, September, 27 2023

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