Pakistan's interim prime minister said he expects parliamentary elections to take place in the new year, dismissing the possibility that the country's powerful military would manipulate the results to ensure that jailed former premier Imran Khan's party doesn't win.
In an interview with The Associated Press Friday, Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar said it's the Election Commission that is going to conduct the vote, not the military, and Khan appointed the commission's chief at the time, so "why would he turn in any sense of the word against him?"
He said that when the commission sets an exact election date his government "will provide all the assistance, financial, security or other related requirements." The Pakistani military has been behind the rise and fall of governments, with some of Khan's supporters suggesting there is de facto military rule in Pakistan and that democracy is under threat.
The solution, Kakar said, is to gradually improve the performance of the civilian institutions "rather than weakening the current military organization, because that's not going to solve any of our problems." Kakar said India has sent 900,000 troops to Kashmir and its people are living in "a large imprisonment" with no political rights, in violation of the United Nations Charter's right to self-determination and the resolution calling for a UN referendum.
"The most important player in this dispute is the Kashmir people," Kakar said. "It is neither India or Pakistan," but the Kashmiri people who "have to decide about their identity" and their future.
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