Prime minister to invoke Article 245 to deploy army in all major cities
The army will be called in to assist civil institutions.
According to Express News Islamabad Bureau chief Amir Ilyas Rana, the decision was taken during a high-level meeting in Islamabad on Friday, which was disclosed to him by a federal minister.
Article 245 states "650[(1)] 650 The Armed Forces shall, under the directions of the Federal Government, defend Pakistan against external aggression or threat of war, and, subject to law, act in aid of civil power when called upon to do so.
651[(2) The validity of any direction issued by the Federal Government under clause (1) shall not be called in question in any court.
(3) A High Court shall not exercise any jurisdiction under Article 199 in relation to any area in which the Armed Forces of Pakistan are, for the time being, acting in aid of civil power in pursuance of Article 245:
Provided that this clause shall not be deemed to affect the jurisdiction of the High Court in respect of any proceeding pending immediately before the day on which the Armed Forces start acting in aid of civil power.
(4) Any proceeding in relation to an area referred to in clause (3) instituted on or after the day the Armed Forces start acting in aid of civil power and pending in any High Court shall remain suspended for the period during which the Armed Forces are so acting."
COMMENTS (55)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
1731570357-0/elon-musk-(1)1731570357-0-165x106.webp "article")
-(1)1717678110-0/Kendrick-(1)-(1)1717678110-0-165x106.webp "article")
And when is Army taking over Parliament? to clean the mess of corruption and get rid of the money eating cabinet and MNAs
@salim: Your soldiers are brave, what ever this means bot their commanders are not bright enough to differentiate between the legal and illegal orders. They have not the legal protection when they fire and bomb civilians. Half of the country has separated on account of military carnage and half of the rest is about to separate and now the Sharif Brothers want to save their Estate with the help of his last buddies?
Rex Minor
so its really martial law? but what happens when the constitution itself removes judicial protection of citizens for arbitrary denial of fundamental rights? this is what the government is claiming for areas in which the army is called in support of govt. what else but martial law should this be called? as ZAB did, a civilian adminstration of military rule is an absurd contradiction in defence of democracy
Pakistan Army is the finest institution in the country and I am sure our brave soldiers will not act against innocent civilians. Perhaps services of Gullu Butt will be used.
This is to legitimize the vicious actions like Model town, that NS takes in order to seek vengeance from his political rivals. I am sorry but this guy will never grow up. Involving army is a ploy to camouflage his dictatorial mindset. The last thing that anybody would want in a democracy is the actions of a govt not being challenged in courts and thanks to NS, we have it on the table now.
If NS, BC thinks Army can protect him from Imran Khan and Long march, he still lives in fools paradise. he must know that this temporary relief is not going to lastlong either. Remember not long ago Musharraf was in power too along with all his military brass. Where is he stands ?
HE IS PROVEN FAILED !!! That’s what happens when some incompetent thug AND a criminal is made PM of a country through sham democracy and rigging? How can he justify himself to remain the PM when he himself is curbing civil rights and asking Army to take over? "
So much experience but nil delivery! Army has to come in to play for everything in the country! Invest in law enforcement and policing instead of free laptops and loan scams.
@i4shad: What it has to be about IK and his supporters ???? If you guys can not come up with any logical answer why do u put that on other people.
I think PM Nawaz Sharif did this to orotect himself. Since recently I read that Lahore high court issued notice to Nawaz sharif and shahbaz sharif for money laundering casw. To stoo the proceedings of high court this step is being taken.
If you had changed thana culture, all this could have been done with police who are specialised to take care of law and order.
"Cat is out of the bag. This fascist government is scared of people’s reaction over its failure" @Umer
People are allowed to react in peaceful manner but destruction of lives and properties of innocent people is unacceptable. Anyone who takes law into his hand should be dealt with iron hand.
Army, like anyother institution is a state tool available to the premier to use for national interests. What's the big deal? Good step.
Its easy to criticize them. When one of your loved ones die in an IED because of the ineptness of our Police and Rangers. Then wiill still complain about this? Pakistan NEEDS to turn into a police state for a few years. The domestic enemies have dug too far into the society.
@ummer - what is the justification of this nut case reaction? you need justification? you must be living in a cave. Pakistan is listed as one of the most dangerous countries in the world and this has happen under civilian rule proving that we are not capable of the military stick. Say what you may about dictatorship as we have seen in Pakistan history the VIOLENCE MAYHEM & SENSELESS KILLINGS were never that rampant as the present times. The citizens of Pakistan are frozen with fear, our men who are supposed to protect their families are locked with weakness so what do you suggest?
@Parvez: 'Seems to have shaken...' You aint sure yet ? let us know when youse sure.
Handling PTI / PAT movements with the Army. So Nawaz now has this ingenious idea of putting his rivals into confrontation so they finish off each other, or at least keep themselves entangled while he rules.
@Jafri: Actually this happens when people who cant be elected thru fair means try to blackmail govts by resorting to voilelnce and incite their followers to embrace death for them. Revolutions will come thru choudhries of Gujrat and SAHEIKHS OF RPINDI AND TUQ?. COME ON LOOK AT THE PEOPLE WHO ARE INCAPABLE OF SECURING A SINGLE SEAT BY THEMSLECVES CHALLENGE GOVT WHICH CAME TO POWER BY MILLIONS OF VOTES .No doubt why defeated elements are getting together .
Army is on cities not from now
@Ch. Allah Daad: 17 people lost their lives in Model Town, Lahore and over 100 injured with bullet wounds. Who ordered the killings? Who distroyed public property on live TV under the supervision of the Police? It was the current goverment's own Gullo Butt... Zara Soochooo!
Well done Pakistan Army. You are rightly driving the government and continue to keep them straight. Entire nation is with you.
I think its a good thing for Pakistan honestly. The terrorists will attack Pakistan after Nawaz Sharif's anti terror campaign in the north west of Pakistan. Army might be more effective in dealing with these terrorists than police. Police in India is more of an after the fact force and I am assuming that its the same in Pakistan. Mumbai police was not prepared for the attacks. I just hope that Pakistan clears the whole swamp this time including the anti-India terrorists and doesn't try to keep them safe. This will be the start of good relations between the two countries. And that will bring prosperity to both as well. Lets wait and see.
It's proven now, NS has and in past a desire to use lethal force to against his political opponents. Now that clears the ambiguity around the murders in cold blood of unarmed Model Twn women & presence of torture cell...his opponents have claimed he has, with bulldogs & lions! Omg! What have we elected in love!
The death of democracy and a dictator in the mask. In last 66 years of struggle and great scarifies to establish a land with purity, humanity and welfare is at least fail. The many decision of the present government proves that the rule of democracy is totally failed in Pakistan, its proves that the state is more important than Nation, it proves that still the politicians are not confident, power less and weak enough that they needs the help of border force army instead of internal security forces. It proves that Pakistan is internally more insecure then external. It further proves that like 1971 (Bangladesh) the Pakistan have only one solution to resolve its petty issue through force and suppression or violence. It also proves that Pakistan has not learnt from the history and still need decades to understand how to solve own problem as civilized Nations. After 66 years of dark age Pakistan is still in the same era and in the hand of those who really spoil the entire ideology of Pakistan. These force basically can't alive with direct and indirect power in hands. Unfortunately what is going on are quite petty issue but because of lack of interest, honesty, vision and race for power such issues propagated are great threats. Unfortunately after 66 years of sacrifices Pakistan is still a security state instead of welfare state. Here both the rule of army, agencies and political puppets could not be ignore that fragmented the whole country and region. They had and are going to destabilized the country and region, they dragging the country and innocent Nation into worst crisis as they did before. It further shows that there is no potential and strength in the political force to deal with internal issues. they are just playing with the Nation and trying to fool the world.
@Ch. Allah Daad:
Cat is out of the bag. This fascist government is scared of people's reaction over its failure.
Once again it's the army to our rescue. Once again this bunch has failed us. What a disgrace.
What else can one expect from a bunch of petty business men? They have no time for us or our cities. The police force is busy looking after them and their families. Personally, I feel more secure in the hands of our army.
Here you go, clear cut message to all Pakistanis...PM understands and is willing to hand over control to PAKARMY. Its a slap on Western countries as well, who don't understand local mechanisms and just blindly dream "their" democracy for the rest of the world.
Earthquakes, Floods, Security during elections, Emergency situation, Operations against militants, Patrolling @ borders & much more...Thanks to the Pak army for its relentless services to the nation during hostile times. Unfortunately, our rulers remained unable to depoliticize Police department which is primarily responsible for the safety of its citizens.
Now PPP government feels thousand times better. Isn't it?
NS is clearly trying to divide the army's resources and attention on various fronts as a strategy to save his government, and perhaps to fail the NW operation as well making them look bad, taking cue from Zardari how he managed to keep army busy in fighting terrorists by not doing anything to tackle the problem of terrorism through police and civil setups. Pakistani nation will ultimately pay the price for his insatiable desire to rule and take revenge from army for his government's earlier dismissal.
In other words government has failed on all fronts.
Qadri certainly seems to have shaken up Nawaz.
Aah! The decision shows that the federal government completely fails to tackle the interior buisness of the country. Army is already Busy on western borders,and now you are going to handle the interior to them. Morally the federal government should admit and Atleast if they don't have enough moral power to resign that should have to hand over the ministery to an able and non political team.
Good Move. May Aallah protect our country.
A ploy to counter PTI & PAT...
Its unfathomable that IK supporters don't realise that country's military has just launched possibly the biggest operation in the history of pakistan and that serious retaliatory attacks are expected. Army deployment is a prudent step and so is everyone standing united behind our Army
Unfortunately we are never happy with any leader no matter how hard he tries. We are just a sad angry nation! God save us.
Why hasn't he taken any steps to improve any governmental institutions? Why police is not independent, impartial and powerful? Why bureaucracy is non-functioning? Why he doesn't even have a foreign minister? Why he hasn't able to produce any serious leadership in his own party other than his close kins? Why he lust powers so much?
Very important and necessary step. No anarchist or fake revolutionary should be allowed to destroy lives and properties of innocent people. The miscreants should be dealt with iron hand. No more abuses and insults to security forces should be tolerated.
That's what happens when some incompetent thug is made PM of a country through sham democracy and rigging? How can he justify himself to remain the PM when he himself is curbing civil rights and asking Army to take over? If he thinks Army can protect him from Imran Khan and Long march, he lives in fools paradise.
Ameer ul Momineen declares pre-emptive martial law?
What is the justification of this nut case action?
So, these so called advocates of democracy haven't been able to establish a single police force worthy of protecting us/our cities. Understandable, we have been using police for Model Town sort of situations. Isn't it shameful?
This proves that civilian govt of PML N is not capable to handle the emerging situation....they have panicked.
After ZAB, second civilian martial law administrator.....CMLA....
Is this the acknowledgement that PMLN has rendered the Interior Ministry completely non-functional, or is it a new ploy to counter PTI and PAT?
Why you don't just hand over the country to army and go back to Jeddah ?
Why not tell in plain language that army is taking over Pakistan and you are PM just for name sake. Good deal. You will carry on with your family business and army will manage the country.
I think this is very prudent step. Safety of the citizens comes first and Army has always assisted the Government to ensure safety and security. The Constitution permits this. Pakistan Zindabad