Imran, Zardari, Nawaz have to seek legal remedy: PM

ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar said any leader, be it Imran Khan, Asif Ali Zardari, or Nawaz Sharif, will have to seek legal remedy to their cases.

In an interview with WE (World Echo) News on Thursday, a digital media platform, he dismissed the impression that the PMLN leader Nawaz Sharif’s decision to get back home was part of any deal with the interim government, APP reports. “The caretaker government has ‘no soft corner’ for PMLN or any other political party. How can a caretaker government strike such a deal?” he remarked.

Kakar pointed out that Nawaz Sharif left the country as per the court decision “under the nose of Imran Khan’s government, and not the caretaker setup”. However, he said if Nawaz Sharif returned and took part in politics, he would have to face some legal obstacles. “The answers to these legal questions lie in legal remedies,” he said.

He said Pakistan was facing the formation of ‘regimental camps’ and had been turned into a fighting ground for political positions. He rejected the notion that the caretaker setup could be likened to the ‘90’s ‘Kakar formula’ where the then prime minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and President Ghulam Ishaq Khan were forced to quit to make way for fresh elections. “This comparison is apples and oranges. It is out of context because in our case, the stint of the normal parliament led to its retirement and we are part of a constitutional continuation where leaders of the house and the opposition had agreed upon my name. There has been no interference from any institution in our case,” he said.

On general elections, he said necessary security and administrative arrangements were in place. He said the caretaker government in collaboration with the Election Commission was in the process of finalizing the required measures. On the expulsion of Afghan refugees, the prime minister said the action was being taken only against unregistered foreign nationals and over one million illegal aliens. The government’s objective, he said, was to regulate the movement of unregistered foreign nationals through proper process.

On relations with India, he said the radicalized RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) mindset of the ruling Indian party and the Kashmir dispute were the main hurdles to the maintenance of good ties. “The situation between Pakistan and India needs to be improved; however, realistically at present, there is no such possibility,” he said. Kakar said the hegemonic designs of India needed to be curtailed as the country was turning into hell for its minorities, including Muslims, Sikhs, and others.

Asked about any possibility of recognition of Israel, he said, “There are no such deliberations going on. Pakistan considers Israel an ‘oppressor’ and stands with the rights of Palestinians to their existence and return to their land,” he said.

On Pakistan’s economic stability, he said the country for the first time witnessed a reversal in the value of the dollar with a consistent descent of about Rs 42-45. He said the continuation of the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SFIC) would lead to sustainability and dismissed the impression that the army had taken over the mining sector on the SIFC platform. “The army’s role is a stop-gap arrangement to run the matters and at SFIC, it is providing impetus in the facilitation process,” he said. He emphasized the need for capacity-building of civil institutions as a pathway for a viable state economically.

In Balochistan, he termed security, governance, scarcity of resources, and mismanagement the main challenges. He recalled that during the meeting of the apex committee held in Quetta, it was revealed that hundreds of ghost schools and health units existed in the province. “Such mismanagement has led to making a few billionaires but leaving the rest of the population deprived including the common Baloch, Pashtuns, and Hazaras,” he said.

Meanwhile, chairing a meeting of the policy board of shipbuilding, Prime Minister Kakar directed the authorities concerned to accelerate the development of more shipyards in the country. He also called for keeping in view the environmental impacts of shipyard building projects. The meeting reviewed the current position of the development of shipyards in the country. It was told that shipyards could be developed in the Surbandar, Eastbay, Kappar and Pishu Khan areas of Balochistan.

Meanwhile, during a meeting with former ambassador to Bahrain Javed Malik at the PM House, the caretaker prime minister directed the Board of Investment to chalk out an effective strategy for joint cooperation on investment with the Pakistani community living abroad. Malik proposed to the prime minister to set up a platform for cooperation in investment activities with overseas Pakistanis.

In a related development, talking to a delegation of Council of Pakistan Newspapers Editors (CPNE) led by its President Irshad Arif here, PM Kakar directed the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the finance ministry to resolve all issues of newspapers on priority.

The prime minister said the newspapers should play their role in promoting such an environment in which everybody listens to the differences of opinion. He said currently an organized propaganda campaign was being launched against the state. He said during his visit to the US, an organized campaign of false news and undue criticism was launched against him.

Kakar said he accompanied a very short delegation during his visit to the US where he effectively presented Pakistan’s case on climate change. The prime minister pointed out that he presented the cultural aspect of climate change to the world by referring to the holy Quran.

With respect to the smuggling of foreign currency, he said strict measures were being taken to stop the smuggling of dollars in the short term. The rising value of the rupee against the dollar is a testament to the success of this campaign, he said, adding that the Managing Director International Monetary Fund (IMF) had also appreciated the government’s measures to stop smuggling and illegal transactions of foreign currency. The prime minister said the smuggling of petroleum products also continued to cause serious damage to the country’s economy. Likewise, he said steps were being taken across the country to prevent power theft.

He said Pakistan had billions of dollars of trade potential with Central Asian states, adding, “I am trying my best to take such measures during the short period by which we can use our trade capacity. Speaking about his upcoming visit to China, Kakar said Pak-China strategic relations, bilateral trade, China Pakistan Economic Corridor and tourism promotion would be discussed during the visit. Similarly, he said plans to take full advantage of the potential of tourism in Gilgit-Baltistan would also be part of discussions. He said the government was making the process of privatization of loss-making state-owned enterprises fast and transparent as the privatization of loss-making public institutions would reduce the loss to the country’s exchequer.