The ruling party Pakistan Tehreek I Insaaf (PTI) has successfully secured the approval of the Army Amendment Bills from The NA Standing Committee on Defense. The respective body has approved the three bills associated with the Army Amendment act which deals with The tenures of the services chiefs and the the chairman of joint chiefs of staff committee, Defence Minister Pervez Khattak confirmed on Monday.
According to private media platform, a new timeline for the entire legislative process had been agreed upon as government had informed that the NA standing committee on defence after approving the bills, on Monday, will lay its report before the house on Tuesday and the assembly would pass the bills within the same day before referring them to the Senate for a similar procedure and then present its report to the house on Wednesday (Jan 8) for the immediate passage of the bills.
The agenda stated the committee will take up the Pakistan Army (Amendment) Bill 2020, the Pakistan Air Force (Amendment) Bill 2020 and the Pakistan Navy (Amendment) Bill 2020 in its meeting.
The salient features of the Army Amendment Bill are as follows: The new amendment would establish that the president, on the advice of the prime minister, can specify tenure as well as set the terms and conditions of the service of the army, naval and air staff, and the chairman of the joint chief of staff committee. This also includes the most critical element i.e., grant of extension and re-appointments of the services chiefs. Furthermore, The amendment also fixes the age of the services chiefs at 64 years.
The most significant aspect of the bill is that the amendment provisions would ensure that future extensions won’t be challenged before any court on any ground whatsoever as it states: “Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act or any other law, or any order or judgment of any Court, the appointment, reappointment or extension of the Chief of the Army Staff, or the exercise of discretion by the appointing authority in this regard, shall not be called into question before any Court on any ground whatsoever.”