Kakar quits as BAP member, senator

ISLAMABAD/ LAHORE: Nominated Caretaker Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar Sunday surrendered his membership of the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) and Senate.

Taking to X — formerly known as Twitter — Kakar said, “Owing to the fundamental responsibility conferred upon me as the caretaker Prime Minister, I have decided to surrender my membership of the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) and relinquish my Senate position.”

The caretaker premier-designate also requested the people to pray for him so that he could live up to their expectations by fulfilling his fundamental responsibility in the best manner.

“I am thankful to the Almighty for being given an opportunity to serve the people of Pakistan. My gratitude also extends to all the stakeholders for reposing their trust in me to lead the country,” he said.

“Prayers requested from everyone that Allah gives me the fortitude to carry out my responsibilities with due diligence,” he added. President Dr. Arif Alvi will administer oath to him as the 8th caretaker prime minister on Monday (today) at 3:00 pm during a ceremony at the Aiwan-e-Sadr.

Kakar hails from Qilla Saifullah, Balochistan. He was elected to the Senate in 2018 and has been a very active politician. He has worked as chairperson of the Senate Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development and as member of the Business Advisory Committee Finance and Revenue Foreign Affairs and Science and Technology.

He also served as the spokesperson for the provincial government prior to his election to the upper house in 2018. Kakar holds a master’s degree in political science and is an alumnus of the University of Balochistan.

Meanwhile, in a first visible sign of cracks appearing in the PDM allies ahead of the upcoming elections, Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) Chairman Akhtar Mengal Sunday expressed his displeasure with the appointment of Senator Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar as the interim prime minister, claiming that this decision had created “more distance” between his party and PMLN.

“You have nominated such a person as caretaker prime minister whose appointment has closed the doors of politics for us,” Mengal said in a letter to the PMLN Quaid Muhammad Nawaz Sharif. “Such decisions have created more distance between us and you.”

Mengal also expressed his displeasure with the way PMLN was preferring to ally with the army instead of taking politicians on board.

“A solution is being sought by consulting the establishment instead of politicians,” he wrote, adding that the “atrocities” of military-led regimes from General Ayub to General Musharraf were not yet forgotten. He further accused the PMLN of “forgetting” the “conspiracies and unconstitutional” actions of the former military ruler and president general (retd) Pervez Musharraf and former chief of army staff General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa.

Mengal also took issue with some decisions of the outgoing government.

He also took issue with the fact that the Pak-China Gwadar University was being built in Lahore instead of Balochistan.

He said Punjab had no scarcity of educational institutions; however, being on the periphery, Balochistan’s several cities were in urgent need of better educational institutes, especially for higher education.

He wrote that renaming the Gwadar airport after Feroz Khan Noon — a former prime minister — was shocking, as Balochistan’s population might not even be aware of his name.

He further contended that whereas in the last census, the population of Balochistan was about 2.24 million, in the most recent census — approved by the Council of Common Interest (CCI) and to be the basis of the upcoming elections — 7,300,000 fewer people were recorded.

Mengal in his letter wrote that: “Not taking allies into confidence on important decisions will perpetuate mistrust.” It must be noted, however, that other parties, too, have raised concerns about the latest census.

Responding to Akhtar Mengal’s criticism, Sarfraz Bugti Sunday tweeted, “Sardar Akhtar Mengal Sahib, the chairman of the Senate and the chief minister of Balochistan, and the opposition of the caretaker prime minister, is this not an open contradiction? A senior politician like you, I hope you will reconsider your attitude!”

In another related development, former interior minister Rana Sanaullah said Akhtar Mengal’s objection to the caretaker prime minister was because Kakar was his political rival.

He said Aimal Wali Khan had authorized Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and gave him no name for the caretaker prime minister. “The establishment should have a role; without it, we cannot move forward,” he said while talking to Shahzad Iqbal in Naya Pakistan.