Why has the Supreme Court never asked the military to declare in writing that it will not mount another coup?
LAHORE: This is with reference to Nasim Zehra’s excellent article of January 25, titled “The SC on the army and ISI chiefs’ removal”.
Will someone who is a lawyer and is well-versed in the Constitution, kindly explain how and why would the country’s apex court seek such a guarantee from the government? Doesn’t the prime minister have the constitutional authority to appoint and dismiss or fire, the services chiefs? Did not both the army and the ISI chiefs get extensions in their service from the government — the sanction for which must have come from the prime minister directly?
Now that the government has been asked, through the attorney-general, to submit in writing that no such action will take place, does that not set a bad precedent? If the Supreme Court has asked that of the current government, could it not ask a similar thing of the next government?
Also, why has the Supreme Court never asked the military to declare in writing that it will not mount another coup?
Nadir Rasool
Published in The Express Tribune, January 26th, 2012.
