Daily Times

PML-N leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Monday said Prime Minister Imran Khan was creating a “unnecessary fuss” over army chief’s tenure, saying that as per the Constitution a premier was only mandated to talk about the “appointment” of the military head and not of their “extension”.

Prime Minister Imran Khan had on Jan 6 said he had so far not thought about extension in the tenure of Chief of the Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa.”The current year has just started and November is far away. Then why is there a worry about extension in the tenure of the army chief,” the prime minister had recently said.

Abbasi, a former prime minister himself, during a media talk in Karachi, questioned the use of the term “extension” by PM Imran regarding the army chief’s tenure.He said the Constitution was clear on the army chief’s appointment, saying: “The Constitution that we’ve read [says] the army chief gets appointed for three years. There has never been a debate on extension of the army chief’s tenure.”

When reminded by a reporter that the army chief’s extension has now been legislated on, Abbasi said: “That is a part of law but when the prime minister talks, he talks about the appointment and not of extension.”

It is pertinent to mention here that current Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa’s tenure was extended for three years by the prime minister in Aug 2019, just three months before he was set to retire.