PM Kakar says its ECP's prerogative to announce election date

ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar on Wednesday said that general elections could be held in mid-January or by the end of January, however its ECP’s prerogative to announce the election date, ARY News reported.

Expressing his views during a talk show of a private TV channel, the caretaker prime minister said that the caretaker set up was ready to assist the electoral process, look after the law and order and financial matters related to holding elections.

The delimitation was a due and constitutional process, the president had also advised the ECP in this regard, and the ECP would hold deliberations, he added.

He said that they had identified the officials and political personalities, at the federal and provincial levels, who were involved in smuggling and illegal trade activities.

The relevant authorities were also securing evidences against them which would be produced before the courts of law, leading to their conviction, he said and assured that a stern action would be taken against all those involved in such activities.

PM Kakar further elaborated that the US dollars were converted into different currencies and parked across the region, leading to a vicious cycle that was functioning for the the last one and one and half year which was now being smashed through physical crackdown and border management laws.

He said an artificial inflation was created through hoarding and smuggling, adding that ongoing operations were yielding tangible result and positive outcome, and cited the reduction in price of sugar etc.

The caretaker prime minister, to another question regarding economic revival, lauded the incumbent chief of army staff for contributing towards the national economy.

The caretaker prime minister, responding to a question about trials of PTI chief Imran Khan, said that such matters should be left to the courts to decide.

On Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s arrest, he observed that it was upto the law enforcement agencies to decide whether laws permitted someone to be handcuffed or not.

About a related query regarding return of PML-N leader and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to Pakistan, he said the law enforcement agencies would decide whether he could be arrested or otherwise in accordance with the laws.

Welcoming the incoming Chief Justice of Pakistan, the prime minister said he considered him as a modern and enlightened personality of his native province Balochistan and hoped he would initiate judicial reforms.

The prime minister, to another question, said that the US forces had trained the Afghan national army and spent trillion of dollars in Afghanistan, but after their withdrawal, the Afghan national force disappeared quickly and the weapons given to them also vanished.

Now, these were being on sale in the black markets across the globe, he said, adding that the terrorists outfits like TTP, Daesh and BLA had used such weapons in terrorist acts inside Pakistan.