Abbasi wants COAS extension amendment repealed

LAHORE:

Senior Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Saturday expressed his opposition to the constitutional amendment that paved the way for former army chief Gen (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa to secure a three-year extension in his tenure.

Abbasi, who represents the top brass of the ruling party, termed the matter a “mistake”, despite the fact that his party had supported the amendment back in the day when they had a rather hard relationship with the then-Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government.

Gen Qamar was given a three-year extension in November 2019 by then-prime minister Imran Khan, citing regional security and environmental challenges.

The extension in service became controversial when it was challenged before the Supreme Court (SC).

The apex court had given parliament six months to amend the army act to allow room for extension. The amendment bill was unanimously passed by parliament with the support of the then-opposition parties.

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In an interview with a private TV channel, the former prime minister expressed his “personal opinion”, which he said he had since day one.

He claimed that then-premier Imran “rushed” to extend the tenure of the former army chief “without taking advice”, adding that the decision should have been made in the November of 2019.

He explained that extending the tenure of the army chief should not be made a routine act, and the legal pathway that made it possible was a “mistake”, adding that the institution itself would call for the law to be repealed.

On the allegations being levelled by the PTI chief against the former army chief, Abbasi said that both of them should sit together and “decide who has stabbed whom”.

Subtly claiming that Imran was playing with the former army chief during their terms in power, he said it was not the duty of the former to play with the latter and it was not the duty of Gen (retd) Qamar to be involved in politics. He remarked that the current situation in the country stemmed from this interference.

In direct contrast with the move it made in 2019, the PTI has now been regretting the extension of the former army chief. The former premier himself termed it a “big mistake”.

The Pakistan Peoples Party, on the other hand, supported the move as a need of the hour, with its General Secretary Nayyar Bukhari saying last year that the situation at the time warranted it.

Bukhari also mentioned that his party had extended the tenure of an army chief in the past as well.

Political situation

Abbasi said that the provincial assemblies could only be dissolved by those who had a clear majority. He further said that he did not know whether Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi could pass the no-confidence vote since he came through a “court order” rather than voting.

On the unification of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi, he said that if they were uniting on their own, it was a “good thing”, but expressed reservations on unification with an “underlying purpose”.

Further, questioning why thousands of police personnel failed to dispel hundreds of PTI supporters, the former premier demanded a truth commission to probe the Faizabad protest.