Defence experts weigh in on COAS tenure extension debate

ISLAMABAD: Defence experts on Tuesday largely blamed the incompetence of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government for the confusion created by a Supreme Court decision to suspend the notification of an extension in tenure of Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa. 

Talking to Geo News, former Secretary Defence Gen (R) Asif Yasin Malik said that he believed that the government’s incompetence was the sole reason of this controversy. “This is an insult to the office of the prime minister, not of army chief. The government isn’t aware of the procedures and cannot even remove the procedural mistakes," he noted. 

He further added that the government should have simply apologised to the apex court for these procedural errors. "The court might have accepted their plea and asked the government to remove these mistakes. But now I believe things will further deteriorate after the Supreme Court’s initial verdict,” he commented.

Malik noted that General Bajwa would stand retired if the court delayed the verdict till November 29. Another deference expert, Major Gen (R) Ejaz Awan, while talking to Geo News, said that many army chiefs have been awarded extensions in the past, but they were never challenged or suspended by the courts.

“Call it an incompetence, ill-intention or stupidity of the present government but this is not a good tradition. Making the army chief’s extension controversial is certainly distasteful. A question here arises why the previous army chiefs’ extensions were not challenged or suspended,” said Gen (R) Ejaz.

“When Pervez Musharraf toppled the government and suspended the Constitution it was the court which provided him the legal cover. Gen Ayub Khan was given or awarded himself extension. Gen Ziaul Haq, Gen Musharraf and Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani were also given extension."

"But they were never challenged or suspended by the court. Even I wasn’t aware of the fact that there is no mention of ‘extension’ in Army Act,” commented Ejaz Awan. The government late on Tuesday amended the Army Act to include a clause for extension after the court order earlier.