Pak. SC grants six-month extension to Army chief

Asks Parliament to specify terms of service

Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Thursday allowed a conditional extension of the Army chief’s term for six months, during which Parliament will have to legislate on the terms of service of the top general.

On Tuesday, the court temporarily suspended a government notification granting a three-year extension to Army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa. A Bench, comprising Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa and Justices Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel and Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, heard the case and gave a short order on Thursday.

“…we, while exercising judicial restraint, find it appropriate to leave the matter to Parliament and the federal government to clearly specify the terms and conditions of service of the COAS [Chief of the Armed Staff] through an Act of Parliament and to clarify the scope of Article 243 of the Constitution in this regard,” the court said. Therefore, the current appointment of the Army chief “shall be subject to the said legislation and shall continue for six months from today, whereafter the new legislation shall determine his tenure and other terms and conditions of service”, it said.

Latest notification

Article 243 deals with the President and the federal government’s authority over the armed forces. In its latest notification, the government has said Gen. Bajwa is being reappointed as Army chief in accordance with Article 243, which vests the power to appoint the supreme command of the armed forces with the President.

The Supreme Court, however, said it could not find any provision relating to the tenure or reappointment of the Army chief “under the Constitution or the law”. It wants the new legislation to remove the legal ambiguities over the reappointment, or extension of the service, of the Army chief.

Amendment

Faisal Chaudhry, Additional Advocate General, Punjab, doesn’t think that there is a need to amend Article 243 for the new legislation. “The terms and conditions of the service of the Army chief can be regulated by passing a new enactment if the federal government decides so, or the Pakistan Army Act 1952 can be amended to that extent and the lacunas — if any — can be filled by amending the persisting law,” he told The Hindu .

He says the reason is that unlike other constitutional offices, the Constitution does not envisage the tenure of the Army chief, hence there is no requirement to bring an amendment to it.

(Originally published in The Hindu)

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