Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar on Wednesday said that the media in Pakistan, currently ranked 150 out of 180 nations in the RSF list, was “freer” than in the Western countries. Kakar made the remarks in an interview on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum being held in Davos, Switzerland.
Pakistan is one of the world’s deadliest countries for journalists, with three to four murders each year that are often linked to cases of corruption or illegal trafficking and which go completely unpunished, according to Reporters Without Border (RSF). “Any journalist who crosses the red lines dictated by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) – an intelligence agency offshoot – is liable to be the target of in-depth surveillance that could lead to abduction and detention for varying lengths of time in the state’s prisons or less official jails,” according to Paris-based media watchdog.
In an interview with CNBC, Kakar spoke about Pakistan’s economic outlook, the next month’s election, and charges against embattled Imran Khan. Analysts believe Pakistan’s powerful military has thrown its backing to PML-N’s Nawaz Sharif after it was locked in a standoff with Imran Khan. The military denies the accusations and says it remains apolitical.
When questioned about the “freeness and the fairness” of polls after the arrest of ex-PM Khan and the PTI being stripped of its electoral symbols, Kakar said the two terms were “always a subjective matter”. The caretaker PM said that Pakistan was a transitional democracy, saying that such democracies faced “domestic challenges”. “I am not saying we are living in a settled, ideal democracy. Yes, there are concerns but we will try, as much as we can, to give a chance to the people so that they can elect their future leadership in a very fair manner,” he was quoted as saying by the Dawn newspaper.
While referring to the May 9 violence, Kakkar claimed that the cricketer-turned-politician was not jailed for his political opinions but for his “alleged role in committing riots and encouraging arson”. “The people who have been involved in the riots are behind the bars. It is not that innocent people have been picked up for their political opinion and have been denied a political role or being part of that process. So I do not see that as unfair,” he said.
Asked if Pakistan blamed the rising militancy on the Biden administration’s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan in 2021, he said, “No, I do not blame anyone for anything.” “It is the situation and the circumstance in which we are living. We did foresee that there would be implications for Pakistan when the US and Nato withdrawal would happen. And that is why Pakistan was advocating for a responsible withdrawal.”
“But at the same time, we do appreciate and see the perspective of the Western hemisphere, when they were in a rush to leave the region, they had their own priorities. So Afghanistan was an abandoned project for them. But for us, it had real-time tangible implications and particularly the gadgets which were given to the Afghan army which unfortunately were sold to the black market,” he said.
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