Pakistan’s PM expresses ‘alarm’ over border situation, asserts it won’t cause delay in elections

ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar described Pakistan’s border situation as “alarming” in an interview on Saturday, though he ruled out the possibility of any delay in the next general elections due to the security situation on the country’s international frontiers.
Kakar made this assertion against the backdrop of rising political voices seeking the election commission to announce the date for the national polls, which have already been delayed due to the delimitation of national and provincial constituencies in the country.
President Arif Alvi had dissolved the National Assembly on the advice of former Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in August, just a few days before its tenure was set to expire.
According to the constitution, the next election should have been held within 90 days, ending at the beginning of November. However, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) decided to redraw the constituencies based on a digital census conducted earlier this year in April. There is growing uncertainty surrounding the national polls since then which may now happen somewhere in February.
The prime minister told the Voice of America’s Urdu service there was no fear of delayed elections due to security situation on Pakistan’s borders.
“At the moment, I do not see any such possibility,” he told the interviewer. “It is true that there is an alarming situation on the eastern and western borders which has enhanced the security threat and our response mechanism. But we are confident that we will control the situation and complete the electoral process at the same time.”
Kakar disagreed when asked why his administration was doing almost everything other than focusing on the national polls.
“It is not right to say that we are not taking steps to facilitate elections,” he continued. “The caretaker administration has been fulfilling the Election Commission of Pakistan’s requirements and fully providing it assistance on a daily basis.”
However, he reiterated it was not the mandate of his interim government to announce the elections and was only required to provide financial, security and other assistance to the ECP.
He also maintained his government would not raise any objection if the Supreme Court ruled in favor of holding the general elections within the 90-day period.