Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar says he believes the February 8 general elections were held in a ‘free and fair manner’

ISLAMABAD, Feb 12 (SABAH): Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar has congratulated the entire nation for conduct of peaceful general elections despite heavy challenges and security threats. PM Kakar said he believes the February 8 general elections were held in a “free and fair manner”.

Talking to media persons in Islamabad on Monday, Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar said transition of democracy despite heavy challenges in terms of security, terrorism and economic challenges, internal chaos, and hostile neighborhood is applauded.

The Prime Minister said we have to carry on and show our commitment towards democracy despite numerous challenges. He congratulated and applauded all law enforcement agencies for ensuring a peaceful day of conducting a democratic exercise.

Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar said we were apprehensive due to terrorism threats particularly because of two unfortunate terrorist incidents which took place in Balochistan. He said in that environment, conducting peaceful elections is a big achievement.

The Prime Minister said he is eagerly waiting that the newly elected government take over the reign and transition of power go smoothly.

He said the elected representatives would have to focus on the immediate economic, security and policy challenges and take this nation towards the destination where it deserves.

Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar defended the delay in election results, noting that mobile services were disrupted — which hampered the gathering of votes — due to security threats.

“We could afford delay, but terrorist attacks, we could not […] delay does not mean rigging,” Kakar said.

Kakar, recalling instances of election results’ delays in Sweden and Indonesia, wondered whether their polls were “rigged”. “We are a country of 240 million with 92,000 polling stations […] this entire process had to consume some time, which should and can be explained.”

The prime minister informed the journalists that in 2018, the entire result-gathering process took 66 hours; however, in 2024, it was completed in 36 hours — however, the official Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) deadline was around nine hours.

PM Kakar has said he believes the February 8 general elections were held in a “free and fair manner”.

“We did not have any institutional mechanism either in fear or favour of an entity, political group or individual,” he said, adding the same was the stated policy of the caretaker government.

Regarding complaints of irregularities in the electoral process, the premier said a procedure pertaining to this had been provided by Parliament. “But I agree that the future Parliament should focus more on the electoral process, the system of balloting and rest of the issues affiliated with it. “I personally feel we should have a more robust and financially independent election commission,” PM Kakar added.