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Roving Periscope: Little-known Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar named Pakistan’s caretaker PM

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Virendra Pandit

 

 

New Delhi: The scale of mutual mistrust amongst Pakistani politicians, even within the ruling coalition, has been reflected in their choice of a little-known politician, Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, as the caretaker Prime Minister to oversee the coming parliamentary elections, in which the jailed former PM Imran Khan will not be able to participate.

 

The new caretaker PM, Anwaar-ul-Haq, is an Independent Senator, who won in 2018 with support from Balochistan Awami Party, which is viewed as close to the powerful Pakistan Army.

 

Pakistan’s outgoing Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and opposition leader Raja Riaz agreed on Saturday to name Senator Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar as caretaker premier to oversee elections, the media, quoting the Prime Minister’s office, said.

 

Kakar, a lesser-known politician from the southwestern province of the restive Balochistan, will now name a cabinet and head a government to steer the nuclear-armed nation through an economic and political crisis until a new government is elected, the reports said.

 

“The Prime Minister (Sharif) and the Leader of the Opposition have jointly signed the advice which will be sent to the President for approval,” the statement said.

Pakistan’s Geo News said President Arif Alvi, who dissolved the National Assembly (the Lower House) on Wednesday, later approved Kakar’s appointment.

 

Under Pakistan’s constitution, a neutral caretaker government oversees elections to the National Assembly, which must be held within 90 days of the dissolution of the Lower House. So, the next elections are due by early November.

 

The choice of a caretaker prime minister assumed importance this time because he will have extra powers to make policy decisions on economic matters, and amid fears the elections may be delayed by as much as six months.

 

The Election Commission of Pakistan, in view of new census figures putting the population at 240 million recently, will now have to delimit and redraw new boundaries for hundreds of federal and provincial constituencies and, based on that, announce an election date.

 

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah had said recently that elections are unlikely this year because the delimitation exercise could take at least six months.

 

Kakar was the chairperson of the Senate Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development. He was also a member of the Business Advisory Committee, Finance and Revenue, Foreign Affairs, and Science and Technology in Parliament.