Daily Times

The National Assembly and the Senate approved all three amendment bills concerning the tenure of service chiefs and the chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively. Almost all political parties have shown maturity and exhibited a sense of national cohesion and unity.

Earlier, the drafts were approved from the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Defence on Monday, before being tabled for voting.

Following the Supreme Court’s verdict of November 28, which awarded a six-month extension to Army Chief General Qamar Bajwa and referred the matter to the parliament to formulate laws and redefine the Army Act’s clauses about Army Chief’s retirement and extension, the PTI government presented the said bill in the National Assembly and the Senate. Whereas the Supreme Court’s verdict was criticised by many legal and constitutional experts, the majority of media anchors and analysts criticised the PPP and the PML-N for supporting the bill.

Most of the channels showed footages of PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif in which he had criticised the establishment and vowed to establish civilian supremacy. They questioned whether lending support to the bill unconditionally was a way to establish the supremacy of the constitution? If the PML-N has abandoned the course of confrontation with the institutions, it should be appreciated, as the environment of cooperation would help resolve other important issues like the appointment of NAB chairman, Chief Election Commissioner and others. Of course, the PPP and the PML-N or any other party would stand for sovereignty of the Parliament, and would not like the judiciary to meddle in the affairs of executive. If it is the PTI’s prime minister today, tomorrow it could be PPP’s or PML-N’s prime minister. It is heartening to note Pakistan Stock market’s rise; rupee’s stability against the dollar; and that Pakistan’s economy will tremendously improve in 2020.

The geopolitics surrounding Pakistan is extremely critical, which do not require State to get involved in petty internal disputes but to concentrate on looming global disaster in the making on our western and eastern borders

Indeed, the previous law did not define the retirement age-limit for the chiefs of armed forces as well as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. Earlier in 1956, 1962 and even in 1973 Constitutions, the authors had, in their wisdom, left the matter of appointment and extension of army chief to the Prime Minister of Pakistan, keeping in view the situation on the borders. However, CJP Asif Saeed Khosa deemed it appropriate to fix the tenure of army chief by amending the army act to give it a legal cover. Anyhow, the amended bill has set 64 years as a limit. It empowers the president to reappoint or extend the tenure of all chiefs and CJCSC on premier’s advice. And that no court will be allowed to question the PM’s discretion on the reappointment of chiefs on “any ground whatsoever.”

It should be borne in mind that geopolitics surrounding Pakistan is extremely critical, which do not require State to get involved in petty internal disputes, but to concentrate on looming global disaster in the making on our western and eastern borders. The consensus and joint efforts by mainstream political parties are being appreciated by the general public and conscionable elements, except for a handful of so-called analysts. Anyhow, this whole process of amendment to Army act is supportive of the argument that how democracy is gaining strength in Pakistan, something which the enemies of Pakistan cannot digest easily. Our peers in the media too should hold their horses. Instead of cheerleaders, they should now for a change become moderators. They should stop pitting one organ of the state against another, and stop lambasting PML-N for acting in the national interest.

On December 17, 2016, the Government of India appointed Bipin Rawat the 27th Chief of the Army Staff, superseding two more senior Lieutenant Generals, Praveen Bakhshi and PM Harris. He took the office of Chief of Army Staff on December 31, 2016, after the retirement of General Dalbir Singh. Government rules say seniority and merit are the twin pillars for the appointment of the chief of 1.3 million-strong Indian army. Governments invariably followed the tradition of seniority, so much so that one army chief Rajendrasinhji Jadeja served only for 43 days in 1955. In the past, Indira government violated this unwritten seniority principle just once in 1983, when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s government appointed General Arun Vaidya as army chief over the senior-most army commander Lt General SK Sinha. But there was neither media trial nor his appointment was challenged in the court.

In Pakistan, the debate as to who is supreme should end. The fact of the matter is none is superior over others; none is inferior to others; all are subservient to the constitution, and all are bound to follow stipulations of the constitution. Another school of thought believes it is the prerogative of the Supreme Court to delete any existing article or any amendment made to the constitution by the Parliament. However, a majority of constitutional experts consider it as an encroachment in the domain of the Parliament. Justice John G Roberts, the present chief justice of the United States, during the hearing of a case declared: “Umpires don’t make the rules. They apply them. The role of an umpire and a judge is critical. They make sure everybody plays by the rules. But it is a limited role. Nobody ever went to a ballgame to see the umpire.”

The writer is a freelance columnist