The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday issued its detailed judgment on Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa’s extension, pointing out the flaws in the process undertaken by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government.
Citing procedural loopholes, the top court had last month suspended a notification issued by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in August for the army chief’s reappointment till 2022.
It had directed the federal government to legislate and remove lacunae in the reappointment/extension of tenure of the COAS within six months.
The detailed written judgement released Monday in connection with the previous short, the SC said it had “found that the Pakistan Army Act, 1952 falls deficient of the structural requirements for raising and maintaining an Army under clause (3) of Article 243 of the Constitution”.
EXPLAINED:
The verdict noted that “no tenure or age of retirement for the rank of General is provided under the law. As per the institutional practice a general retires on completion of a tenure of three years. Although an institutional practice cannot be a valid substitute of the law.”
“There is no provision in the law for extending service of a General for another tenure; nor is there any consistent and continuous institutional practice of granting such extension,” Justice Shah wrote, adding that the summaries for the reappointment, extension and fresh appointment of General Bajwa were “meaningless” in absence of the relevant law.
