In this handout photograph taken and released by the Pakistan’s Press Information Department (PID) on August 14, 2023, Pakistan’s President Arif Alvi (C) administers the oath to Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar (L) as caretaker Prime Minister during an oath-taking ceremony while outgoing Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (seated R) looks on at the President House in Islamabad.
AFP PHOTO/PAKISTAN’S PRESS INFORMATION DEPARTMENT
- Little-known senator Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar has been sworn in
as Pakistan’s caretaker prime minister. - He will lead the country until elections take place in the
coming months. - Pakistan has been facing instability, with popular
politician Imran Khan in jail and disqualified from elections for five years.
Little-known
senator Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar was sworn in Monday as Pakistan’s caretaker prime
minister to see the country through to an election due in months.
Kakar, 52,
takes charge of a country that has been wracked by political and economic
instability for months, with Imran Khan – Pakistan’s most popular politician – in jail and disqualified from elections for five years.
Kakar was
sworn in by President Arif Alvi on Pakistan’s Independence Day in a ceremony
carried live on TV, having resigned from his post as senator on Sunday.
“I
Anwaar-ul-Haq, do swear solemnly… that I will bear true faith and allegiance
to Pakistan,” he said.
Kakar’s
first task will be to choose a cabinet to run the country as it heads into an
election period that could last for months.
In this file photo taken on 16 January 2016, spokesperson for the Balochistan government, Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, speaks during an interview with AFP in Quetta. Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, a little-known senator from Pakistan’s least-populous province, will be caretaker Prime Minister to see the country through to the next election, the leader of the opposition said on 12 August 2023.
Parliament
was officially dissolved last week, with elections due within 90 days according
to the constitution.
But data
from the latest census was finally published earlier this month, and the
outgoing government said the election commission needed time to redraw
constituency boundaries.
There has
been speculation for months that a vote would be delayed as the establishment
struggles to stabilise a country facing overlapping security, economic and
political crises.
“I am
relinquishing heavy responsibility after 16 months… We came constitutionally
and leave as per the direction of the constitution,” outgoing premier
Shehbaz Sharif said in a farewell address to the nation on Sunday.
“I
have confidence in the caretaker prime minister’s ability to conduct free and
fair elections.”
Pakistan
has been in political turmoil since Khan was dismissed as premier by a
no-confidence vote in April 2022, culminating in him being jailed last weekend
for three years for graft.
READ | Jailed ex-premier Imran Khan barred from Pakistan politics for 5 years
He has been
disqualified from standing for office for five years, but is appealing against
his sentence and conviction.
Cracked down
Authorities
have cracked down hard against Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party in
recent months, crushing his grassroots power by rounding up thousands of his
supporters and officials.
Political
analyst Hasan Askari Rizvi told AFP at the weekend that Kakar “has a
limited political career and not much weight in Pakistani politics”, but
that could work in his favour.
“This
can be an advantage because he has no strong affiliation with the major
political parties,” he said.
“But
the disadvantage is that being a lightweight politician, he may find it
difficult to cope with the problems he’s going to face without the active
support of the military establishment.”
Analyst
Ayesha Siddiqa noted that Kakar had done courses at the National Defence
University – formerly the military’s war college – and said he would be close
to the establishment.
“It
seems that the establishment has struck and they have found somebody who will
be watching over their interests rather than that of politicians,” she
said.
Last month,
parliament rushed through legislation that gives the caretaker government more
power to negotiate with global bodies such as the International Monetary Fund,
another clue it may be around for a while.
Some
analysts think the delay could give time for the main coalition partners – the
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) – to
figure out how to address the challenge of Khan’s PTI.
EXPLAINER | What lies ahead for Pakistan’s Imran Khan convicted over graft
“But
in reality, delaying the election could simply anger the public more and
galvanise an opposition that has already suffered through months of
crackdowns,” said Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute
at the Wilson Center.
The United
States said last week it was watching with concern the prospect of election
violence.
Behind any
election in Pakistan lurks the military, which has staged at least three
successful coups since the country was forged from the partition of India in
1947.
Khan
enjoyed genuine widespread support when he came to power in 2018, but analysts
say it was only with the blessing of the country’s powerful generals – with
whom he reportedly fell out in the months before his ousting.
