ISLAMABAD - The Senate Standing Committee on Defence Tuesday unanimously passed three bills pertaining to the tenure and terms and conditions of the service of the chiefs of armed forces.

The bills are “Pakistan Army (Amendment) bill, 2020”, “Pakistan Air Force (Amendment) bill, 2020” and “Pakistan Navy (Amendment) bill, 2020.”

“No member opposed the bills,” Minister for Defence Pervez Khattack told the media after the in-camera meeting of the committee at the Parliament House.

He said no political party had moved any amendment in the bills. According to the defence minister, the bills will be laid before the upper house of the parliament today.

According to the statement of objects and reasons of the three bills, the President, on the advice of the Prime Minister, can specify tenure and terms and conditions of the service of the services chiefs and the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff Committee. This includes the grant of extension and re-appointments of the services chiefs.

Meanwhile, Senate Standing Committee on Defence Production met at the Parliament House with Senator Lt-Gen Abdul Qayyum HI (M)(R) in the chair.

While chairing the meeting, he observed that Pakistan will develop its combat worthiness to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity at all costs.

While appreciating the performance of Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) Kamra, the committee directed that top priority be given for enhancing combat worthiness of PAF by meeting their requirements to counter threats to Pakistani airspace, its land borders or sea frontiers.

He further directed that innovative research and self-reliance through indigenous pursuits will be the ideal strategy to reduce foreign dependence.

The other directions include: “Commercialisation of our products should be our next priority to not only earn much needed foreign exchange but also to reinforce our bilateral ties with friendly countries.

This would need excessive marketing, reasonable prices and qualitative edge over the products of our competitors. Defence Production set ups need to follow a realistic costing system and curtailment of unnecessary manpower and logistic burdens which will ultimately result in rationalisation of prices to be more competitive in the international markets.”

It was advised to ensure foolproof security of our Defence Production installations.

The meeting was held in-camera and was attended by Senator Nauman Wazir, Senator Mushahid Hussain, Senator Nuzhat Sadiq, Senator Muhammad Akram, Senator Anwar Lal Deen, Major General Akif Iqbal Additional Secretary form the ministry, Air Cdre Shahab Imtiaz Joint Secretary FC from the ministry, Air Vice Marshall Shamsul Haq MD AMF, Air Cdre Salman Abbas Shah MD MRF and representatives of Ministry of Defence Production and PAC Kamra.