ISLAMABAD – The Supreme Court (SC) allowed on Thursday the extension ofChief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa’s tenure for sixmonths.
Earlier, the SC and government’s representative mulled over extending aconditional three-month extension in COAS’s tenure while the governmentcomes up with a legislation. The government then presented a writtensummary undertaking that the parliament will pass legislation regarding theextension matter within six months and also an amended notification.
The amendments included the elimination of the mention of the SC, durationof the army chief’s tenure and the description of army chief’s salary andincentives.
A three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Asif SaeedKhan Khosa and comprising Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel and JusticeSyed Mansoor Ali Shah took up Riaz Hanif Rahi’s petition against theextension in tenure of army chief.
The army chief is being represented by Farogh Naseem, who resigned from hispost as law minister on Tuesday. During the hearing today, the bench askedAttorney General (AG) Anwar Mansoor Khan to present the extensionnotification issued for former army chief General (retd) Ashfaq PervezKiyani as well as that of General (retd) Raheel Sharif’s retirement.
The AG also submitted the summary of the third draft notification preparedby the government yesterday. Reading out the summary, the CJP asked whydoes the summary mention SC.
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“Bear your own burden, why do you use our name? Do your own work, why doyou drag us in the middle?” He also directed the AG to eliminate themention of the SC from the summary. He told the AGP to specifically removethe part referencing the court’s advice from the summary. “If the presidentwants our advice, that is a different matter,” the chief justice said.
The bench noted that Bajwa was already the army chief and inquired how canan appointment be made on a position that is already occupied. The SCremarked that there is no mention of a tenure of three years in the law.
Justice Shah asked the AG to suggest how to fix laws regarding the army.The AG replied that it would take time more than three months passlegislation on this matter. Naseem said that the government will makeamends in Article 243 and was ready to even provide a written summary.
