KARACHI: Interim Prime Minister Anwaar ul Haq held a meeting with MQM-P leaders at the Governor House in Karachi and assured them about the effort of his government to utilise all possible resources to address the issues faced by Karachi.

“In the meeting, the two [sides] discussed the country’s overall situation, economy, interfaith harmony and national matters,” said a statement issued by the Governor House. The delegation comprising Dr Farooq Sattar, Syed Aminul Haq, and Khawaja Izharul Hassan asked the PM to address the issues of delimitation in Karachi and water shortage, it added.

Later after a visit to Mazar-i-Quaid in Karachi, PM Kakar said that his administration was not there to hold free and fair elections only but also propagate the “ideology and its true spirit” of the country.

The prime minister was accompanied by Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori, Caretaker CM Maqbool Baqir and the members of his cabinet. It was his maiden visit to Karachi after assuming office last week.

“We [caretaker government] are here only as an outcome of a constitutional requirement,” he said while addressing the state-owned media which didn’t pose any questions to him after the address. “We are here to assess and monitor the electoral process. We would put in our hundred per cent for fair and free elections which should be acceptable for all segments of the society. We wish and pray for peaceful and smooth completion of this transition phase.”

While recalling the mandate of his caretaker government, he also mentioned the defence of the country’s ideological boundaries under the August 11, 1947 speech of Pakistan founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah before the Constituent Assembly.

“Along with this [completion of transition phase], we are also here to propagate the ideology of Pakistan and its true spirit under which this state came into being,” he said. “We need to discuss that social contract time and again under which this country was founded by Jinnah and [Allama] Iqbal.”

According to the prime minister, the ideology of Pakistan defined political and economic rights in the context of ‘state vs individuals’ not on the basis of ethnicity, religion, or community.