Tazeen Akhtar
Finally , the cat is out of the bag in the Parliament of Pakistan where the champions of democracy bulldozed the most controversial bills to strengthening the Chiefs of Armed Forces by extending their tenure from 3 to 5 years, allowing the Law Enforcing Agencies to detain anyone for first 3 months and more if required, only on suspicion and not proved guilty of any crime or traitory.
This law is not different than the discriminatory, draconian laws imposed in Palestine and Jammu Kashmir by Israel and India. Giving more powers to who are already powerful can be detrimental, not only for the country but for themselves as well.
The National Assembly of Pakistan passed another bill to increase the number of judges in the Supreme Court of Pakistan from present 17 to double 34. Senior lawyers and experts of law and justice have expressed concerns over the number of judges and termed it as Gov’s endeavor to control the superior judiciary by posting judges of the Gov’s choice and securing the desired decisions. Certainly this is not for disposing off the backlog of 65 thousand cases.
The opposition parties, mainly Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf PTI and Jamiat Ulama i Islam JUI have categorically rejected the bills and called the legislation as non democratic as they have not been given the time to speak on the bills before they were passed. It took few minutes to bulldoze the legislation in both houses of the parliament where the standard rules of introduction of a legislation have not been followed and the opposition was totally pushed to wall. The most controversial bills have been presented and passed in few minutes time.
I recall here, a Deputy Director at Pakistan Bait ul Maal, the charity department of Gov of Pakistan. The DD was in administration branch of the department and had the opportunity to issue office orders. He issued the orders of promotion of 400 assistant directors ,out of the way, only to process his own promotion at Director seat. No one raised any objection on DD’s undue promotion to Director.
Extension has never been the issue in anywhere else than one place that is known to all. Yes! this time , we heard about two other extensions as well. 1- Chief Justice Qazi 2- Chief of Air Staff. I penned down a column after the restoration of judiciary in 2007 with title ” Their will be 2 Chiefs in the Country now”. It meant 1- Army Chief 2- Chief Justice of Pakistan.
I noted on record and in a show on TV that Qazi’s extension does not seem possible , the government tried its utmost though. I noted in my writings and comments that Legal community is not as “disciplined” as the officers of armed forces are. Lawyers and their organizations will not let gov to start another bad example in the country.
And finally the same happened. Gov had to say good buy to CJP Qazi and rely on Justice Yahya Afridi. Lets see , he has the nerves like Qazi or not? He can fulfill the expectations of Gov or not? It is hard in my opinion and that is the reason, the gov has covered it in the judicial commission by nominations of representatives of the government. This commission will form the benches to hear the cases of constitutional nature and the judges will be nominated with the consent of the gov’s parliamentarians on the board.
The Chief of Air Staff has made history in the sense that he is the first to get not first but actually two extensions. He has performed very well and in case of JF-17 sale to Azerbaijan, an international fame has also been earned. Moreover the Air Force thwarted the Surgical Strike of India in Kashmir. He was appointed in March 2021 and the Prime Minister extended his tenure for one year in March 2024, silently because no announcement was made in this regard. Now he gets 2 more years as per the legislation. His brother is MNA of PMLN, the ruling party.
The Chief of Air Staff took over the command in Oct 2023. He is the only one who benefited from the legislation only thanks to the conformity phenomenon or we can say by default. The most controversial legislation has proved to be a lottery for him. He got what he never expected. Here we can connect the story of 400 ADS’ out of the way promotion for legalizing the undue promotion of one DD in Pakistan Bait ul Maal.
PTI leader Omar Ayub lambasted the ruling party for the legislation, he said, ” Extension of services chiefs will affect the performance of the forces. A strong connection of nearness is required between the chiefs and the officers that will not remain intact when the chiefs will have a long difference of time factor with their deputies.”
The statement of Information Minister Attaullah Tarar is very interesting in this regard. He said “There is no harm if the tenure of any services chief is extended to five years like we have a five-year term for a government. It will help bring stability and continuity of policies within institutions.”
Indirectly, or innocently , he apparently mentioned that now the powerful services chiefs will not create any hurdle for the government. Here again it comes to surface that the two other chiefs have been obliged only to make the actual one extension in line and save it from criticism. Certainly, the criticism can not be controlled like legislation is being controlled in the name of the constitution and the citizens.
The Chief of Army Staff, Gen Asim Munir has emerges as the luckiest General in the history of Pakistan. First , he took the top seat and another stint of 3 years only a day before he was about to retire.Now he has 2 more years to serve the country. He will remain at the helm of affairs til Nov 2027 irrespective of a retirement age of 64 for a general.
Gen Asim Munir has played central role in stabilizing the deteriorating situation in the country, let alone the legal and constitutional side that a COAS can do this and do not that. Pakistan is different country than the world. Here the first priority is attached to the survival of the state and for that the democracy needs energy from non democratic power houses.
As long as, the strong opposition of PTI and JUI are concerned, the gov and the powerful house are working on that as well. A lot of work has already been done with required results. Big challenge on political front is PTI. CM KP and Bushra BB have been neutralized. Shah Mehmood’s son , MNA has already left PTI. Shah Mehmood himself is about to announce the same. They all will convince Imran to have patience for few years and let this system survive and Imran’s own survival is also in the same understanding.
JUI has been supporting Gen Musharraf in the past as the main opposition party in the parliament and sharing power in KP as the gov of Muttahida Majlis e Amal. Maulana Fazl ur Rehman’s style is give and take , do not go against the system to derail or destroy it. He will be managed in the same way as the gov took him on board for the recent 25th constitutional amendment on judicial reforms.
Yes! two fronts still are there and very difficult to conquer. 1- The Lawyers who have proved them impregnable in the past in restoration of judiciary movement in Gen Musharraf’s regime 2- Justice Mansoor and other like minded judges who have been posing survival threats to the incumbent gov and are still in the Supreme Court. Here the target is too hard to achieve.
Also, a big question remains unanswered, unaddressed. That what will be the rules regulations for Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee now who is supposed to be the senior or equal to all chiefs. Incumbent , appointed to the post on 27 November 2022 will retire next year. A junior will be heading the Committee after that?
https://pakistanintheworld.pk/live/pakistan-in-the-world-october-2024/
