Pakistan PM ‘can’t guarantee free and fair elections’ as country votes with mobile services suspended
The caretaker prime minister of Pakistan has told Sky News there is no attempt to “target a specific party or group” amid claims of pre-poll rigging and candidate harassment.
Speaking on the eve of the election, Anwaar ul Haq Kakar did acknowledge they couldn’t totally guarantee free and fair elections.
“Absolute is a very relative term and it’s a very subjective term,” he said.
“What I can assure you is that despite all our shortcomings and flaws which there are in the system, there is no systematic pattern or institutional pattern where we are targeting a specific party or group.”
Pic: Reuters
Pic: Reuters
Mr Kakar said he was “surprised” at the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights expressing concern over the “pattern of harassment” against members of former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan’s party.
Ex-cricketer-turned-politician Mr Khan, founder of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party and the country’s former prime minister, remains the most popular politician in the country, according to polls.
Days before the vote, he was sentenced to 10 years for leaking state secrets, 14 for corruption and seven for an “illegal” marriage. He says the charges are politically motivated.
Mr Kakar said that the “objective test” would come today and he urged others not to prejudge the election.
Speaking of the “pattern of harassment” suggestions, Mr Kakar said: “If that is the case, then I will look into it that whether it was an isolated individual case with few or a couple of individuals, or was it a broad-based pattern happening to thousands of the people, millions of the people, then yes, you can come back and accuse us that this is what we have done.”
Police officers stand guard outside a polling station in Islamabad, Pakistan. Pic: AP
Pic:Reuters
It comes as people have begun casting their ballots in the country’s highly-charged election – the build-up to which has been marred by violence and claims of fraud.
On the eve of Thursday’s election, bombs struck two political offices in southwestern Pakistan, killing at least 30 people.
Tens of thousands of police and paramilitary forces have been deployed at polling stations to ensure security.
Mobile phone services cut
Mr Kakar had said late last night that he had “no intention” of shutting down internet services.
But this morning his government did exactly that, cutting mobile phone services across the country, citing “recent incidents of terrorism in the country”.
Pakistan’s chief election commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja told Sky News that “whenever they feel like there is no problem as far as security is concerned, it will be on”.
Some analysts suggest the suspended mobile phone services will have an impact on turnout.
Many in the country have said the military is pulling the strings in this election – with Nawaz Sharif being their favoured candidate.
Mr Sharif is the 35-year-old son of former prime minister Benazir who was assassinated in 2007. The Oxford graduate has promised to double salaries and end the politics of hate.
Mr Kakar said: “This criticism of the military on influencing the political process is not something modern and new to the election of 2024.”
Explained:
The problems facing Pakistan as voters go to the polls
Voters outside a polling station in Lahore, Pakistan. Pic: Reuters
Many also believe the military had a hand in the appointment of Mr Kakar himself
“They [the military] have a view on everything,” he said, “but they are not directly influencing the democratic process and the political process of this country”.
The next 48 hours will be crucial in determining people’s faith in that claim.
This is the highest stakes diplomacy via social media.
The American president just posted on his Truth Social platform: “We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding.
“He is an easy target, but is safe there – We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now. But we don’t want missiles shot at civilians, or American soldiers.
“Our patience is wearing thin. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Israel-Iran live: Trump says US knows where Iran’s supreme leader is ‘hiding’
It was followed minutes later by “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”
In real-time, we are witnessing Donald Trump’s extreme version of maximum pressure diplomacy.
He’d probably call it the ‘art of the deal’, but bunker busters are the tool, and it comes with such huge consequences, intended and unintended, known and unknown.
Read more:
The bunker buster bomb which could destroy Iran’s nuclear ambitions
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Nuclear sites targeted in Iran
There is intentional ambiguity in the president’s messaging. His assumption is that he can apply his ‘art of the deal’ strategy to a deeply ideological geopolitical challenge.
It’s all playing out publicly. Overnight, the New York Times, via two of its best-sourced reporters, had been told that Mr Trump is weighing whether to use B-2 aircraft to drop bunker-busting bombs on Iran’s underground nuclear facilities.
Meanwhile, Axios was reporting that a meeting is possible between Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi.
The reporting came just as Mr Trump warned “everyone in Tehran to evacuate”. The nuclear sites being threatened with bunker busters are not in Tehran, but Trump’s words are designed to stoke tension, to confuse and to apply intense pressure.
His actions are too. He left the G7 in Canada early and asked his teams to gather in the White House Situation Room.
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Trump: ‘I want an end, not a ceasefire’
This is a game of smoke, mirrors, brinkmanship and – maybe – bluff. In Tehran, what’s left of the leadership is watching and reading closely as they consider what’s next.
Maybe the Supreme Leader and his regime’s days are numbered. Things remain very unpredictable.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
From history, though, regime change, even when it comes with a plan – and there is certainly not one here, spells civil war and from that comes a refugee crisis.
These are truly tense and chaotic times.
World
Ukraine war: 14 killed as Russian missile and drone attacks strike Kyiv – including American citizen
Russian missile and drone attacks have killed 14 people in Kyiv overnight, according to Ukrainian officials.
A 62-year-old US citizen who suffered shrapnel wounds is among the dead.
At least 99 others were wounded in strikes that hollowed out a residential building and destroyed dozens of apartments.
Pic: AP
Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble.
Images show a firefighter was among those hurt, with injured residents evacuated from their homes.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the attack as “one of the most terrifying attacks on Kyiv” – and said Russian forces had fired 440 drones and 32 missiles as civilians slept in their homes.
“[Putin] wants the war to go on,” he said. “It is troubling when the powerful of this world turn a blind eye to it.”
Pic: AP
Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said 27 locations across the capital have been hit – including educational institutions and critical infrastructure.
He claimed the attack, in the early hours of Tuesday morning, was one of the largest on the capital since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022.
Drones swarmed over the city, with an air raid alert remaining in force for seven hours.
One person was killed and 17 others injured as a result of separate Russian drone strikes in the port city of Odesa.
Pic: Reuters
It comes as the G7 summit in Canada continues, which Ukraine’s leader is expected to attend.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to hold talks with Donald Trump – but the president has announced he is unexpectedly returning to Washington because of tensions in the Middle East.
Ukraine’s foreign minister says Moscow’s decision to attack Kyiv during the summit is a signal of disrespect to the US.
Moscow has launched a record number of drones and missiles in recent weeks, and says the attacks are in retaliation for a Ukrainian operation that targeted warplanes in airbases deep within Russian territory.
Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko says fires broke out in two of the city’s districts as a result of debris from drones shot down by the nation’s air defences.
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Pic: AP
On X, Ukraine’s foreign ministry wrote: “Russia’s campaign of terror against civilians continues. Its war against Ukraine escalates with increased brutality.
“The only way to stop Russia is tighter pressure – through sanctions, more defence support for Ukraine, and limiting Russia’s ability to keep sowing war.”
Olena Lapyshnak, who lived in one of the destroyed buildings, said: “It’s horrible, it’s scary, in one moment there is no life. I can only curse the Russians, that’s all I can say. They shouldn’t exist in this world.”
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