New notification of army chief’s tenure extension issued
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ISLAMABAD: In connection with the extension in tenure of the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar javed Bajwa, the federal government has issued a new notification here on Tuesday after supreme court suspended the first one early morning today.
After suspension of the notification by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Asif Saeed Khosa, the federal cabinet has taken back the first notification issued with the signature of Prime Minister Imran Khan on August 19 this year.
This was informed by education minister Shafqat Mehmood, Shehzad Akbar and Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid in news conference in Islamabad.
Summary of the new notification was presented to the cabinet, which after due diligence, approved it, he said, adding that the summary had been sent to President Arif Alvi for the final approval. The press conference was called following a marathon meeting of the federal cabinet held to deliberate upon the issue at the PM Office.
Shafqat said the cabinet made amendments in rules of Article 255 of Pakistan Army Act 1952. “Word extension in tenure has been added,” he added.
He said the prime minister had the prerogative to recommend appointment of services chiefs to the president under Article 243 of the Constitution.
The education minister said the decision was taken owing to strained relations with India. “The whole world knows about the prevailing tension at the Line of Control (LoC) and extraordinary situation in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir,” he added.
The development came after the chief justice took up a withdrawal application of a petition challenging the army chief’s tenure extension earlier in the day. Justice Khosa rejected the application and took up the petition under Article 184 (3) of the Constitution under public interest.
The case was converted into a suo motu.
The apex court also issued notices to the defence ministry, the federal government and Gen Qamar, who is due to retire on November 29. The hearing was adjourned until Wednesday.
The apex court, in a verbal order after today’s hearing, said Prime Minister Imran Khan issued the notification in his own capacity and the mistake was realised after the said notification was issued.
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