Caretaker PM addresses first interim cabinet meeting, calls on nation to start envisioning \u2018Pakistani dream\u2019
\nislamabad
\nTwo days after the Christian community in Faisalabad\u2019s Jaranwala was attacked over blasphemy allegations, Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar on Friday said that the Pakistani state and society do not align and identify with the elements involved in attacks on the minority community.
\n\u201cThey may be from us but they are divorced from our identity. We do not identify with them,\u201d he said while addressing the newly sworn in caretaker federal cabinet.
\nThe caretaker PM warned against any possible play between law and politics. \u201cI know it is a polarised society and in this polarised environment we will try to differentiate between politics and law. There is a law and there is a rule of order. We would ensure that the rule of order is not compromised in any way. Rule of order would ensure and lead to rule of law,\u201d he said.
\nIn the same breath, he added that \u201cif there is chaos and anarchy then no government system, secular or religious, could exist. So we know the sanctity of order and that would be kept at any cost\u201d.
\nIn a nod to the country\u2019s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah and his famous speech of August 11, 1947, Kakar said there would be \u201cno identity-based rights\u201d be prescribed. \u201cRights,\u201d he said, \u201cwill not be given to people on the basis of nouns, but rather on adjectives, on the basis of conduct, character and behaviour.\u201d
\nHe called upon the nation to start envisioning a \u201cPakistani dream\u201d and to start working towards realising it.
\n\u201cWe would strongly discourage rigidity be it any form in this society. We do not stand for the forces of darkness,\u201d he stressed. \u201cExtreme attitudes\u201d which he said included \u201csecularism\u201d and \u201creligious\u201d ones, would not only be \u201cunwelcomed, but would be discouraged. They would be curbed and controlled by the law.\u201d \u201cThe minorities, so help us Allah, will stay protected in this country. There may be an attempt to harm them by the marginalised and peripheral group of people but that will be responded to sternly by the state and society, both,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cWhen you are in the majority, the minority must be protected,\u201d he added, \u201cnot on the basis that they would convert to your worldview. They can differ with you. But their human dignity and security and their provision and sustenance have to be ensured by this divinely inspired idea\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u2018Will lay foundation of continuation\u2019<\/p>\n
Kakar said that the cabinet while not having a perpetual mandate \u201cwill try to lay some foundation where we have a sense of continuation of national and international commitments.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that the cabinet will try to support new initiatives within the bounds of the law and Constitution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Caretaker PM addresses first interim cabinet meeting, calls on nation to start envisioning \u2018Pakistani dream\u2019 islamabad Two days after the Christian community in Faisalabad\u2019s Jaranwala was attacked over blasphemy allegations, Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar on Friday said that the Pakistani state and society do not align and identify with the elements involved in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350158,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-350139","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-news"},"yoast_head":"\n