Pak govt, oppn reach consensus on proposed Army Act amendments

The Pakistan government and the opposition have reached a consensus on over the proposed amendments to the Army Act before tabling the bill in Parliament to give a three-year extension to Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa.

The legislation, titled Pak­­­is­tan Army (Amend­ment) Act-2020, will fix 64 years as the maximum age limit of the three services chiefs and the chairman of the joint chief of staff committee, with the Prime Minister having the prerogative to give extension to any of them in future after completion of their normal tenure at the age of 60 years and the President having the power to give the final nod, reports Dawn news.

The main opposition Pak­istan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Thursday assured the government of its "unconditional" support to the bill, but the Pakistan Peoples Party warned against haste in the matter to ensure proper legislation thro­ugh Parliament.

Leaders of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) are confident that the bill will be passed by Parliament with the required simple majority on Friday.

"We are hopeful that the bill seeking amendments in the army act, which requires a simple majority, will be passed from both houses unanimously on Friday," PTI chief whip in the National Assembly Amir Dogar told Dawn news on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, the government moved a miscellaneous petition before the Supreme Court seeking suspension of its November 2019 judgement related to the COAS service term till the final decision.

The top court in its judgement had ordered the federal government to introduce legislation about army chief's service tenure within a period of six months. The court, however, had accepted the re-appointment of COAS Gen Bajwa.