Alleged HR violations: Not accountable to any govt, says PM Kakar

NEW YORK: Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq spoke at a press conference after addressing the United Nations on Friday about a range of issues, including atrocities in held Kashmir, relationship with neighbouring countries like Afghanistan and Iran and elections in the country.

When asked by a reporter about arrests of people, including women, in the country at the press conference, he said laws are not gender-based and there is nothing in the laws to say they wouldn’t be applied to women. When the reporter told him that Pakistanis based in the US were contacting US congressmen about alleged human rights violations and arrests in the country, he said emphatically: “We are not accountable to any government; we are not accountable to any congressman — absolutely not!” He added that Pakistan had strong ties with US.

Caretaker Prime Minister Anwarul Haq Kakar said, “We must counter all terror without discrimination, including the rising threat posed by far-right extremist and fascist groups such as Hindutva-inspired extremists, threatening genocide against Indian Muslims and Christians alike.”

The prime minister said a large number of people were killed in Manipur. Serous questions are being raised about India’s handling of minorities.

The premier went on to say that New Delhi also needed to oppose state terrorism and address the root causes of terrorism such as poverty, injustice and foreign occupation and distinguish genuine freedom struggle from terrorism.

Regarding the brutal killing of a Sikh leader in Canada which came as a rude shock to the world, he said Modi-backed ideologues of Hindutva are becoming emboldened in a manner that they are now going beyond the region. He said Pakistan is facing terrorism for the last two decades. The prime minister said the resurgence of terrorist threats by dangerous entities such as TTP and ISIS-K was a matter of grave concern for Pakistan and the entire international community. He said a stable Afghanistan continued to remain an important foreign policy priority for Pakistan and the United States. Kakar said we are holding constructive dialogue with the interim Afghan government. Pakistan has always respected the territorial integrity of Afghanistan and we will continue doing so. “We know how to defend and protect our sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he said.

Regarding his meeting with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on the sidelines of the 78th Session of UN General Assembly, Kakar termed it a multilateral meeting that focused on a large number of bilateral and multilateral interests.

On the Jaranwala tragedy, the premier said the government took speedy action as a responsible state against those responsible for the sad incident.

Kakar said the ECP has not banned any political party. He said holding elections is the mandate of Election Commission of Pakistan. The caretaker government’s responsibility is to support the ECP. The date of the elections will be announced soon. However, those behind the May 9 violence would face legal action.

He said there is no shortage of essential commodities and we have stopped the hoarding of flour and sugar with an effective crackdown and policy measures.

He said foreign investors are interested in investing in Pakistan because of the government’s new policies. The prime minister said attracting foreign investments in all sectors of Pakistan was the government’s top priority. Kakar said the government believed in a no-holds-barred foreign investment regime and had constituted the Special Investment Facilitation Council to facilitate foreign investors, bolster their confidence and expedite project implementation in priority areas of agriculture, IT, energy and minerals and mining.