Pakistan’s interim Prime Minister has rejected the possibility that the country’s military will manipulate the results of the upcoming national elections in the country and try to damage the prospects of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party in the elections. Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar insisted that the voting would be conducted by the election body, not the army. He told news agency ociated Press that why would the election body chief be against me in any sense. Pakistan has been in deep political turmoil since April 2022 when Imran Khan was removed from office following a no-confidence vote in Parliament. He was arrested on corruption charges in early August and sentenced to three years in prison. The sentence was later suspended, although he is still in prison.
The Election Commission announced that the elections would be held in the last week of January, delaying the November vote as required by the country’s constitution. The interim PM said his government will provide all istance, financial, security or other related requirements when the commission decides the exact election date. On the cases against Imran Khan, Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar said that we are not suing anyone out of personal vendetta. But yes, we will ensure that the law is fair. Anyone, be it Imran Khan or any other politician, who violates the laws of the country in terms of his political behaviour, restoration of law must be ensured. We cannot compare this with political discrimination.
He described his government’s working relationship with the military as very comfortable and at the same time very open and frank. He said that we have challenges in civil-military relations, I am not denying that the state of civilian institutions in Pakistan. It has gone bad. In terms of performance over the last several decades, but the army is disciplined and has organizational capabilities.