letter<\/a> he wrote after the PTI expressed concerns over a lack of level playing in the run-up to polls.<\/p>\n\u201cIn my opinion they have publicly given assurances that a level playing field will be given,\u201d he said. Alvi said two institutions, the prime minister\u2019s office and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), had major responsibilities in this regard.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo me and the whole nation have faith in what the prime minister says,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Responding to criticism about the president becoming a spokesperson for a particular political party, Alvi said, \u201cI am everyone\u2019s spokesperson. Where there is an issue, I will highlight it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The president also declined to comment on whether a particular political party was the \u201cfavourite\u201d. \u201cI don\u2019t want to make myself controversial at this point by debating these things,\u201d he said. The president said that the media was \u201cfree\u201d and the people could form their own opinions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI myself will not express this. Because then the office of the president becomes controversial.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked how he would ensure the general elections are transparent, Alvi said that his was a \u201cnon-executive position\u201d and he could only highlight his \u201cmoral position\u201d. \u201cConstitutionally, this is a symbolic position,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The interviewer then pointed out that Alvi had written several letters with regards to polls, to which the president said that \u201cprompting\u201d happened in all countries.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo the prompting of this office holds importance,\u201d he said. Alvi added that the Constitution did not allow the president to take \u201cdecisive steps\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will work to the extent the Constitution allows. There is no executive authority.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the interviewer pointed out concerns about the lack of transparency in polls when several politicians were still behind bars, Alvi said, \u201cI think the courts are playing their role. The Supreme Court is playing its role [\u2026] I want to trust my institutions deliberately. The president has no other option besides carrying this trust, prompting issues like this and occasionally talking to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked about the possibility of incarcerated PTI Chairman Imran Khan not being able to contest polls, the president said that this was \u201cup to the courts\u201d. He said that he did not wish to speculate on the matter.<\/p>\n
\u201cGod willing, justice will be done. Pakistan was made on the basis of justice and will continue on the basis of justice. If we move away from justice, then threats will increase,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Talking about May 9, when violence broke out in the country following Imran\u2019s arrest, Alvi said that he had condemned the events \u201cin every interview\u201d.<\/p>\n
The president said that the issue of civilians\u2019 military trials was for the courts to decide. \u201cLet me not pre-empt,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Dr Arif Alvi said on Thursday that he would administer oath to PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif if he was elected the prime minister for a fourth time. \u201cMy post demands it. I will fulfil my post\u2019s responsibility. It should be done. I will administer oath to whoever the public chooses,\u201d Alvi said in an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/11\/1618590064ba4a6.png?r=190026","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}