A senator from Balochistan, Anwaar-ul Haq Kakar, has been named the caretaker prime minister of Pakistan, days after the assembly was dissolved.
- Mr Kakar was born in 1971 in Muslim Bagh, Balochistan, as per Pakistani media outlet The News. He received his primary education from St. Francis School, Quetta and later enrolled in Cadet College Kohat. He has a Master’s in political science and sociology from the University of Balochistan.
- Citing BBC Urdu, Dawn reported that Mr Kakar will be the second person from Balochistan to assume the role of Pakistan’s interim prime minister. He began his political career with the PML-N but left it after the end of the Nawaz government as a result of a military coup by the late General Pervez Musharraf in 1999.
- In 2018, Mr Kakar was elected as an independent senator from Balochistan. After assuming office, he co-launched a new political party named Balochistan Awami Party (BAP). He has served as a spokesperson for the Balochistan government and is known for his close relationship with the military establishment.
- Since the launch of the party, Mr Kakar has maintained that he does not take a rigid approach when it comes to dealing with the nationalist parties. “We have no stubbornness or rigidity with nationalist parties. The ball is in their court to decide what they want,” he said in 2018, as per The Express Tribune.
- According to Dawn, Mr Kakar assumed multiple roles during his term in the Senate. He was the chairperson of the Senate Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development. He was a member of the Business Advisory Committee, Finance and Revenue, Foreign Affairs and Science and Technology. He also undertook the role of parliamentary leader for the BAP within the Senate.