Spokesman Report
ISLAMABAD :Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-HaqKakar on Tuesday said that his foremost priority to fix the problems of the country during his tenure in office would be to cut the government’s expenditure and increase revenue.
“The economy is extremely pressing right now and these are the problems which are hitting a common man very hard,” he told TRT World when asked about his vision during the last four months of the caretaker setup.,
Kakar said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) deal was an opportunity for the country to focus on how the economic behaviour was influencing the life of the common man in Pakistan.
“I am quite positive that this current stint of ours no matter how short it is, we will try our level best to provide a blueprint for the future mandated government who can take some benefit of it, stay the course, and deliver on the economic front to the people of Pakistan,” he said.
On the transparency of the upcoming general election, he termed Pakistan as a transitional democracy and assured that the electoral process would be neutral, fair, and free.
He stressed that there would not be any organizational or institutional involvement, either in favor of one or a political group.
On protests by Imran Khan’s supporters, he said the protest, if remained peaceful, was their basic and democratic right. The government will try to protect the democratic right of any political party be it Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Pakistan Muslim League-N, and Pakistan Peoples Party, he said.
However, he stressed that any kind of vandalism in the name of protest would not be allowed.
Asked about the alleged involvement of the United States in the ouster of Imran Khan, he called it a conspiracy theory that was used for public consumption.
“At times politicians do things for populist reasons, but as far as the responsible caretaker government is concerned, we ensure that no one whether it is United States of America or any other power, meddles in our domestic affairs,” he said
Pakistan is a sovereign country that exercises things according to its own interests, he said.
Kakar said the ouster of Imran Khan was “lawful” as it was carried out constitutionally and without a military coup.
To a question on civil-military relations, he said to ensure functional governance, the civilian institutions had been relying on the military due to its organizational capabilities and to deal with day-to-day challenges in areas including health, education, disaster management, and tax revenue collection.