F.P. Report
ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Defence has been summoned again today to discuss the amendments to the Army Act, Air Force Act, and Navy Act, a few days after it approved the bill aimed at regularizing the tenure of service chiefs.
The meeting of the standing committee was called after it was established that the rules and regulations of the parliament were violated during the January 3 session of the committee. The parliament will vote on the bill after the go-ahead of the defence committee.
Sources said that parliamentary secretary Captain Jamil Ahmed presided over the session, which was against the parliamentary procedures.
Sources further said that Ahmed did not call for a vote when the time came to approve the bills, violating the rules and regulations of the lower house. Hence, Amjad Khan Niazi will chair the session of the standing committee when it meets today to discuss the amendment bills and approve them by a vote.
In the previous meeting, members of the upper house had also been called to discuss the bills. However, senators have not been asked to attend Monday meeting, suggest reports.
Opposition’s support
The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) have already given their assent to the amendment bills. The PML-N has announced it will support the bill ‘unconditionally’ while the PPP has called for the ‘democratic legislative process’ to be followed.
These laws will set the maximum age limit of the three services chiefs — chief of army staff, chief of air staff and chief of naval staff– at 64 years. If the bills get passed, the prime minister will have the power to extend the tenure of any service chief and the president will give his final nod to the extension or reappointment.
Under the clause 8B of the bill, the president, on the advice of the prime minister, may “reappoint the Chief of the Army Staff for additional tenure of three (03) years, on such terms and conditions, as may be determined by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister, in the national security interest or exigencies, from time to time”.
“Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act or any other law, or any order or judgement of any Court, the appointment, reappointment or extension of the Chief of the Army Staff, or the exercise of discretion by the appointing authority in this regard, shall not be called into question before any court on any ground whatsoever.”
Back in November, the apex court had asked the government to legislate on an extension in the COAS’s services within six months, allowing General Bajwa to stay in office until then, after briefly suspending the notification of the extension in his tenure.
Prior to that, PM Imran in August had approved the extension in the COAS’s services through an executive order. Former chief justice Asif Saeed Khosa had in late November taken up a petition ‘in public interest’, challenging the extension in service of the COAS.
Last month, after the top court issued the detailed verdict in the COAS case, the government had filed a review petition in the SC, pleading the court to form a larger bench to hear the case, and requesting it to keep the proceedings in-camera.
