ISLAMABAD  -  Caretaker Minister for Information, Broad­casting and Parliamen­tary Affairs Murtaza Solangi on Saturday said no country in the world gave media ac­cess to those people who were involved in serious crimes.

Speaking to WION News, the minister said the former chair­man of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had been convicted and his conviction was not set aside. “He remains convicted and charged with serious crimes,” he added. “As we speak, the PTI remains registered political parties and if people bring them in the federal and provincial assemblies the caretak­er government has no problem. It’s the people of Pakistan who have to make this decision,” the minister remarked. To a query, he said all po­litical parties were being treated equally as the state had no favourites. The state media was giv­ing due coverage to all the political parties. “So far, only constitutional body entrusted with holding free and fair elections is the Election Commission of Pakistan that stands committed to hold the elections on Thursday February 8, 2024,” said Solangi in re­sponse to another query.

He said the constitu­tional caretaker govern­ment was committed to supporting the ECP in every possible way for elections and “we will support the election commission in admin­istrative, financial and security matters”. Every political party was play­ing role of the victim, he said, adding “if you ask PTI they will say we are not getting level-playing field especially in Pun­jab and KPK and if you ask Peoples Party they will say we are not get­ting level-playing field in Punjab.” “Likewise, if you ask PML-N they will say we are not get­ting level-playing field in Sindh. If you ask Mau­lana Fazlu Rehman of JUI they will say we are not getting level playing field in Balochistan and KPK due to security issues,” the minister noted. He said the caretaker gov­ernment had no vested interests in any politi­cal party. “We are there to provide any kind of support to the election commission which is re­sponsible for holding the elections and creating conducive environment.”

“We should wait for the results after elec­tions conducted on Feb­ruary 8. Once people speak their mind when they go to polls to elect a party or a group of party I am sure we will get political stabil­ity,” the minister said in response to another query. He said it was written in the preamble of the constitution that the country would be run by the people’s rep­resentatives through credible elections. As regards the Pakistan and Afghanistan re­lation, he said it was squarely depended on the behaviours and ac­tions of the interim gov­ernment of Afghanistan.