Islamabad, The Pakistan Supreme Court in a short order on Thursday ruled that General Qamar Javed Bajwa will remain the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) for another six months, during which the National Assembly will legislate on extension of an army chief’s tenure.
While pronouncing the verdict, the Supreme Court also took pot shots at the Pakistan government.
The Pakistan government issued two notifications on Bajwa’s tenure extension and the court found many flaws in both. It was clear during the hearing that there was no specific law related to the matter. The court said that since such a matter has come up for the first time it is important to come up with a law related to it. Some of the comments made by the court are:
* We are not able to understand on what basis the tenure extension has been awarded
* Let’s see till when the hearing goes on, as of now we are understanding the case
* In the past, 6-7 Generals were given tenure extension, no one questioned that?
* Prime Minister reappointed the General, whereas the President awarded him the tenure extension. No one bothered to read the notification?
* It seems the Law Ministry has ruined the matter after a lot of hard work
* Why does the Law Minister make such laws?
* The Assistant Commissioner is not being appointed like you are appointing the Army Chief
* You are treating the Army Chief like a ‘shuttle cock’
* If you keep on issuing such notifications, then we will have a huge number of cases
* Go, you have two days, do something. You did a meeting for the whole night, concluded two sessions of the cabinet. We thought so many minds are working on it but after so much of deliberations you have come out with this. This is really painful for us
* The government must check the degrees of those who advise the Prime Minister, the President and issue notifications
