At maiden cabinet meeting, Kakar vows to protect minorities’ rights

ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar said Friday the interim government would not support forces of darkness as he took an exception to the violent incidents in Faisalabad’s Juranwala on May 9.

“The minorities will stay protected in this country. There may be an attempt to harm them from a section of marginalised and peripheral group of people, but that would be responded sternly and strictly,” Kakar said during his maiden federal cabinet meeting.

“Pakistani state and society [do] not align with such elements. They may be from us but they are divorced from us, they are divorced from our identity process. We do not stand for the forces of darkness,” the interim prime minister said.
Addressing the cabinet meeting, Kakar began by praising the interim cabinet, saying that he was “proud” to have “one of the best teams”.

“I am hopeful that Almighty Allah would enable us to lead and steer this nation in this interim period. I am very well aware that we are here for an allocated time. We do not have a perpetual mandate to serve this nation,” he said.
PM Kakar said the caretaker set-up will try to lay foundations in order to have continuation of national and international commitments made by previous governments.

“And in continuation of that, we will try to support new initiatives, whatever the law and Constitution allow us to do,” the premier said, specifically mentioning the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC).

PM Kakar termed the council “a dream come true”. He said that when he was growing up, it was always stated that Pakistan was an agricultural country with rich mineral resources.

He also said: We do not have perpetual mandate to serve the nation but during the given allocated time we will try to lay foundation where we have sense of continuation of national and international commitments that the previous government has made with different forums.”