Pakistan Senator Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar to be Sworn in as New Prime Minister

Little-known senator Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar was set to be 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.

He will be sworn in on the country’s Independence Day on Monday afternoon in a ceremony carried live on TV. “I have confidence in the caretaker prime minister’s ability to conduct free and fair elections," outgoing premier Shehbaz Sharif said in a farewell address to the nation late Sunday.

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.