ISLAMABAD, Aug 14, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - Little-known senator Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar 
was sworn in Monday as Pakistan's caretaker prime minister to see the country 
through to an election due in months.

Kakar, 52, takes charge of a country that has been wracked by political and 
economic instability for months, with Imran Khan -- Pakistan's most popular 
politician -- in jail and disqualified from elections for five years.

Kakar was sworn in by President Arif Alvi on Pakistan's Independence Day in a 
ceremony carried live on TV, having resigned from his post as senator on 
Sunday.

"I Anwaar-ul-Haq, do swear solemnly... that I will bear true faith and 
allegiance to Pakistan," he said.

Kakar's first task will be to choose a cabinet to run the country as it heads 
into an election period that could last for months.

Parliament was officially dissolved last week, with elections due within 90 
days according to the constitution. 

But data from the latest census was finally published earlier this month, and 
the outgoing government said the election commission needed time to redraw 
constituency boundaries.

There has been speculation for months that a vote would be delayed as the 
establishment struggles to stabilise a country facing overlapping security, 
economic and political crises.

"I am relinquishing heavy responsibility after 16 months... We came 
constitutionally and leave as per the direction of the constitution," 
outgoing premier Shehbaz Sharif said in a farewell address to the nation on 
Sunday.

"I have confidence in the caretaker prime minister's ability to conduct free 
and fair elections."
 
Pakistan has been in political turmoil since Khan was dismissed as premier by 
a no-confidence vote in April 2022, culminating in him being jailed last 
weekend for three years for graft.

He has been disqualified from standing for office for five years, but is 
appealing against his sentence and conviction.

- Cracked down -

Authorities have cracked down hard against Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf 
(PTI) party in recent months, crushing his grassroots power by rounding up 
thousands of his supporters and officials. 

Political analyst Hasan Askari Rizvi told AFP at the weekend that Kakar "has 
a limited political career and not much weight in Pakistani politics", but 
that could work in his favour.

"This can be an advantage because he has no strong affiliation with the major 
political parties," he said.

"But the disadvantage is that being a lightweight politician, he may find it 
difficult to cope with the problems he's going to face without the active 
support of the military establishment."

Analyst Ayesha Siddiqa noted that Kakar had done courses at the National 
Defence University -- formerly the military's war college -- and said he 
would be close to the establishment.

"It seems that the establishment has struck and they have found somebody who 
will be watching over their interests rather than that of politicians," she 
said.

Last month, parliament rushed through legislation that gives the caretaker 
government more power to negotiate with global bodies such as the 
International Monetary Fund, another clue it may be around for a while.

Some analysts think the delay could give time for the main coalition partners 
-- the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) 
-- to figure out how to address the challenge of Khan's PTI.

"But in reality, delaying the election could simply anger the public more and 
galvanise an opposition that has already suffered through months of 
crackdowns," said Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at 
the Wilson Center.

The United States said last week it was watching with concern the prospect of 
election violence.

Behind any election in Pakistan lurks the military, which has staged at least 
three successful coups since the country was forged from the partition of 
India in 1947.

Khan enjoyed genuine widespread support when he came to power in 2018, but 
analysts say it was only with the blessing of the country's powerful generals 
-- with whom he reportedly fell out in the months before his ousting.