Khalid Sibtain
Islamabad, (Parliament Times) : Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar said that under the constitution, only parliament was mandated to legislate and stressed further reforms in the criminal justice system.
Expressing his views on a private TV (Aik) news morning show, he opined that the conviction rate under the contemporary criminal justice system was very low, reflecting deficiencies and efforts to be made to plug the loopholes through effective legislation.
To a question about terrorist groups in Balochistan province, the prime minister said that non-state actors had no right to unleash violence and the State had the responsibility to counter such terrorist acts.
About 90,000 people in the country had lost their lives in waves of terrorism, he said, adding whether it was not the onus of political parties and the parliamentarians to improve upon the criminal justice system to expedite the conviction rate!
The prime minister maintained that he was speaking about the whole justice system, especially its lower tiers.
“Whose responsibility was to improve it? Carrying out legislative business under the constitution is the onus of parliament,” he reiterated.
Elaborating on his viewpoint, he said that Baloch, Pashtuns, and different settlers had been living in Balochistan for decades.
There was no political uniform group while one minority armed group was carrying out violent activities, he said, adding that the US State Department, the UK, EU, and all other democratic countries had declared these groups as terrorists, he added.
The prime minister said that he did not differentiate between banned TPP and Ahrar and BLA and BLF, as these terrorist outfits had been using violence as a tool to create terror and kill innocent people.
In their terrorist attacks, about 1038 people had been martyred since 2018 in the province, he said and cited incidents of Coastal Highway and an attack on Turbat police station in which innocent people had been killed and burnt alive.
On the other hand, he said the political protests and approach were acknowledged by the world, intelligentsia, and media. The world has declared ISIS a terrorist organization.
To a query, Prime Minister Kakar said that the Middle East was a complex challenge. Pakistan had conveyed to different world fora and the international community that the continuation of the situation in Gaza was unacceptable, he added.
They had stressed upon opening of humanitarian assistance corridors with immediate ceasefire. Along with the Muslim countries, Pakistan had reaffirmed a joint stance, he said.
The prime minister said that the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Arab League, and the entire world were speaking about the two-state solution with an independent Palestine based upon pre-June 1967 borders, with Al Quds al Shareef as its capital, adding that it was the unanimous stance of the Muslim world.
He regretted that certain elements were criticizing him unjustly for referring to that solution and reiterated that Pakistan had not budged from its principled stance on Palestine.
He maintained that his remarks about Quaid e Azam’s views on Palestine were distorted in the past.
Responding to questions about his childhood and youth, the prime minister said that from a young age, he had been fascinated with politics and political leaders.
He informed that he was greatly influenced by Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s oratory and eloquence who was the most inspiring figure for him. Similarly, former British premier Winston Churchill’s wits and linguistic skills also influenced him.