Pakistan Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar on Wednesday said that the media in Pakistan was “freer” than in the West, saying that latter was under “stricter regulations”.
The premier made the remarks in an interview with CNBC on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum. During the interview, Kakar spoke about the economic outlook for the country, the upcoming election and charges against ex-premier Imran Khan.
Asked about concerns regarding the upcoming elections being “rigged”, the caretaker premier said critics should first let the polls take place after which the 
could be questioned.
“First they said, we are not going to have elections. Now, when we are having an election, they are saying, ‘Oh, it is one of the most rigged elections in the history’,” he said.
Kakar added that there would be international observers as well as foreign and domestic media reporting on the polls. “Let them then report and decide, whether it was rigged or not that rigged,” he said.
Asked whether the media was free and fair in Pakistan, the premier said, “I think so even freer than the Western media. If you do the comparison, the Western media is probably under more stricter regulations than the media in Pakistan.”
Speaking further on the issue of elections, Kakar said that hopefully February 8 the people of the country would exercise their right to vote. He termed the holding of polls a “constitutional requirement”, saying that “everyone was committed to that date”.
Imran Khan
Asked about the “freeness and the fairness” of polls after the after the jailing of PTI founder Imran Khan and the party being stripped of its electoral symbols, Kakar said the two terms were “always subjective matter”.
He said that Pakistan was a transitional democracy, saying that such democracies gone through “domestic challenges”.
“I am not saying we are living in a settled, ideal democracy […] Yes there are concerns but we are trying, as much as we can, to give a chance to the people so that they can elect their future leadership in a very fair way.”
He further added that PTI founder Imran Khan was not incarnated for his political opinions but for his “alleged role in committing riots and encouraging arson” and for calling on his supporters to do the same, in a reference to the episode of May 9.
“This sort of behaviour is dealt with by the law even in settled democracies,” he said, drawing a comparison between the attack on the US Capitol in 2021.
“The people who have been engaged in the riots are behind the bars. It is not that innocent people have been picked up for their political opinion and have been denied a political role or being part of that process. So I do not see that as unfair,” he said.
When the interviewer questioned that Imran has alleged the charges against him are politically motivated, Kakar said, “He has all the right to say that but let the courts decide that. It is not for me, for the media or for public opinion to decide this question […] the court are there to address all these questions.”
Terrorist attacks in Pakistan
At one point, the interviewer reminded the premier had recently blamed the uptick in terrorist attacks in the country on the back of the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan and asked whether Kakar blamed the administration of US President Joe Biden.
“No, I do not blame anyone for anything. It is the situation and the circumstance in which we are living. We did foresee that there would be implications for Pakistan when the US and Nato withdrawal would happen. And that is why Pakistan was advocating for co-ordinated withdrawal,” he said.
“But at the same time, we do appreciate and see the perspective of the Western hemisphere […] when they were in a rush to leave the region, they had their own priorities. […] So Afghanistan was an abandoned project for them. But for us, it had real-time tangible implications and particularly the gadgets which were given to the Afghan army which unfortunately were sold to the black market,” he said.
