Cabinet approves amendment to Army Act: sources

Photo: File

The Federal Cabinet on Wednesday approved amendment to Army Act under the light of the directions given by the Supreme Court in its detailed verdict.

An emergency meeting of the cabinet was convened today under the chair of Prime Minister Imran Khan to review the amendment in the act for extension in the service of chief of army chief.

The apex court had on December 16 asked the government to legislate on the matter within six months.

It is expected that the government may table the bill in the current session of the parliament.

President Arif Alvi had on Tuesday convened a session of both the upper and lower house of the parliament on a twenty-four hour notice. The move was unexpected, since the upper house of the legislature has not met for 124 days, apart from a requisitioned session. 

SC directs government to legislate on COAS tenure

Last month, a three-member bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan had issued a short order in a case pertaining to the extension in tenure of Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa and directed the government to legislate on the matter within six months. 

In late November, the SC had briefly suspended an executive order extending the tenure of COAS General Bajwa after finding irregularities in the procedure for granting an extension to the army chief. PM Imran had in August approved a three-year extension in the tenure of the COAS. 

The government had filed a review petition in the top court late last month and pleaded the court to form a larger bench to hear the COAS tenure extension case, and requested it to keep the proceedings in-camera, arguing that the original judgement had disregarded important points.