Army Act amendment bill to ensure future extensions won't be challenged

ISLAMABAD: According to a copy of the Army Act amendment bill seen by Geo News, the future extension in the tenure of an army chief will not be challenged in any court of law.

The bill states that the legislation shall be called “Pakistan Army (Amendment) Act, 2020”.

As per 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”.

The federal cabinet approved a draft of the bill which is expected to be tabled in the National Assembly tomorrow (Friday) after the government holds consultations with opposition parties.

The bill further stated that the appointment, reappointment or extension of the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) "shall not be called into question before any court on any ground whatsoever."

A Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) delegation headed by Defence Minister Pervez Khattak met with PML-N leaders today (Thursday) to seek support for the bill.

After the meeting, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) said it will support the bill as it did not want the position of the army chief to become controversial.

Government seeks stay order from SC against extension service case verdict

The federal government on Thursday also sought a stay order from the Supreme Court against its November 28 verdict in the army chief extension of service case.

The government in its plea requested the apex court “to accept the application and suspend/stay the operation of the impugned judgment dated November 28, 2019, in the interest of justice".

This is the second petition filed in this high-profile case by the government.

On December 26, the law ministry had approached the top court against its detailed judgement, issued on December 16, in which the federation was ordered to legislate on the matter within six months.

The petition filed today prayed to the court that "The petitioners have a strong prima facie case to succeed; hence the operation of the impugned judgement may be suspended/stayed till the final decision of this civil review petition."

It further stated that the "balance of convenience lies in favour of the petitioners" and if the "injunction as prayed is not granted, the petitioners will suffer irreparable loss.”

The plea asked the chief justice to "constitute a larger bench comprising five judges so as to hear the review petition.”

In its previous petition against the detailed order, the government had pleaded the court to keep the proceedings in-camera.

The petition further argued that the top court’s verdict did not take into account "important constitutional and legal" points. It further stated that the apex court has itself "been giving extensions to additional and ad-hoc judges", making a case for the government to exercise this discretion as well.