ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar on Friday vowed to “sternly” respond to any attacks targeting religious minorities in Pakistan, two days after a Muslim mob vandalized churches and houses in a Christian settlement in the Punjab province.
The police have arrested more than a hundred suspects after the mob, angered by an alleged desecration of the Holy Qur’an, attacked a dozen churches and nearly two dozen homes of minority Christians in the eastern Pakistani city of Jaranwala.
The attacks on Wednesday forced the Christians residents to flee to safer places as the rioters set fire to homes, prompting authorities to call in paramilitary troops to control the situation. Police also arrested two Christian men accused of defacing the holy book.
In his televised address with the newly inducted interim cabinet, Kakar said Pakistan was owned and shared by all ethnicities, creeds and people of all religious backgrounds and his government would “discourage” rigidity in the society.
“The minorities, God willing, will stay protected in this country. There may be an attempt to harm them... that would be responded to sternly and strictly by the state and society both,” the prime minister said, while addressing the maiden meeting of the newly inducted interim federal cabinet.
Blasphemy is punishable by death in Pakistan and though no one has ever been executed, numerous accused people have been lynched by outraged mobs.
But Kakar maintained that the Pakistani state and society did not align or identify with such elements.
“Rigidity may come in the garb of religion or secularism or any other form,” he said. “These extreme attitudes, they are not just unwelcomed, they will be discouraged. They will be curbed and controlled by the law.”
Speaking of the economic challenges, the caretaker prime minister said they were “huge,” but his government would help bring financial discipline to the country.
“I have a deep sense that along with our economic challenges which are huge, with an able team like yourself, we will try to ensure financial discipline, we will have a sense of sanctity of taxpayers money,” he told his cabinet.
The caretaker premier also spoke of his government’s tenure, which may exceed the constitutionally stipulated three-month in the wake of the approval of the 2023 census results by the outgoing government.
“I am very well aware that we are here for an allocated time. We don’t have some perpetual mandate to serve this nation or country,” he said.
“But in given allocated time, we will try to lay some foundations where we have sense of continuation of national and international commitments with all the previous governments which they have given to the different forums and in continuation of that, we will try to support the new initiatives whatever the law and constitution allow us to do especially Special Investment Facilitation Council.”
The prime minister vowed to ensure the “rule of order” amid political and economic uncertainties.
“I know it is a polarized society and in this polarized environment, we would try to differentiate between politics and law. There is a rule of law and there is a rule of order. We would ensure that rule of order is not compromised in any way,” he said.
“If there is chaos, if there is anarchy, no governance system, no secular system, no religious theocratic system would ever the people of concerned territory wish to live with it. So, we know the sanctity of the order that would be kept at any cost.”
The caretaker prime minister condemned the riots on May 9, when former premier Imran Khan’s supporters torched public property and attacked state installations in protest against his arrest. Kakar said he was disappointed to see such violence.
“We not just condemn it, now we are in the role to ensure that justice is being done and whosoever violated laws on that days would be treated by those laws,” he said. “There won’t be any favor, there won’t be any fear. We will try to implement with justice and neutrality.”
