Pakistan caretaker prime minister Anwaar ul Haq Kakar told UK-based news agency Sky News that the caretaker government led by him could not guarantee free and fair elections. “Absolute is a very relative term and it’s a very subjective term. What I can assure you is that despite all our shortcomings and flaws which are in the system, there is no systematic pattern or institutional pattern where we are targeting a specific party or group,” Kakar was quoted as saying by the UK broadcaster.
He assured that there was no attempt to “target a specific party or group”. Pakistanis voted in an election marred by claims of rigging, inter-party clashes, candidate harassment and terrorist attacks.
Kakar said he was surprised when the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said candidates from Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) were subjected to a “pattern of harassment”.
“If that is the case, then I will look into it that whether it was an isolated individual case with few or a couple of individuals, or was it a broad-based pattern happening to thousands of the people, millions of the people, then yes, you can come back and accuse us that this is what we have done,” Kakar said, responding to the claims.
The caretaker prime minister said that the “objective test” would come on Thursday and urged others to not prejudge the elections
Kakar also said that he had no intention of shutting down internet services. Candidates and the general public have expressed their dismay over the government shutting down cellular and mobile services. Several parties like the PTI, Balochistan National Party (BNP) and several others claimed rigging and electoral fraud.
The interior minister and the caretaker government earlier assured that internet services will not be suspended but the cellular and internet services were banned on election day citing security concerns.
Many Pakistanis claimed the army is pulling the strings in this election and is favouring Nawaz Sharif. “This criticism of the military on influencing the political process is not something modern and new to the election of 2024,” Kakar said.
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