Pakistan general elections date likely to be announced soon: PM Kakar

Asserting that there will be a level playing field for all political parties in the next general election, Pakistan’s caretaker prime minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar has expressed hope that the election commission will shortly an­­nounce the date of the polls.

Asserting that there will be a level playing field for all political parties in the next general election, Pakistan’s caretaker prime minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar has expressed hope that the election commission will shortly an­­nounce the date of the polls.

Without mentioning the exact date, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) last month announced that general elections would take place in the last week of January 2024.

“It seems that the date of the elections will be announced quite soon," Kakar told reporters at a news conference, three days after returning from China, where he had attended Belt and Road Forum (BRF) conference on the 10th anniversary of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Commenting on the issue of equal political space for parties in the country, Mr. Kakar said, “No political party has been left out of the political process and that the caretaker government is doing its best to assist the electoral process.”

“We want no political party, entity and its associated political players to be out of the (election) process, but if any restriction is imposed by the court, we have to obey the orders,” he said as former prime minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is facing legal challenges and some of the top leaders of the party are in jail.

“Can’t comment if level playing field means ensuring a particular party’s win. (We) remember the level playing field of 2018 when the South Punjab front came into being," Kakar was quoted as saying by the Dawn newspaper on Tuesday.

Refuting the allegations that level playing field was not available to all political parties, but one, Kakar said: “What attempt the caretakers can do in two months which will help any party to get 171 seats (of the National Assembly in elections)." Kakar was talking to media amind demands by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for a level playing field two days after the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif returned to Pakistan ending his self-imposed exile.