Imran Initiates His Countdown By Commenting On General Bajwa’s Extention
General Bajwa, the Chief of Army Staff, was to retire on November 29, 2019, at the end of his three-year original term but as Prime Minister, Mr Khan gave the Army chief another extension of the same length, citing the regional security situation. After all thanks to Bajwa that the erstwhile cricketer had become the Prime Minister of Pakistan.
However, the Supreme Court of Pakistan, trying to fight the Army through its law books, on November 28 suspended the government order, observing that there is no law to give extension to the Army chief’s tenure. But the apex court granted a six-month extension to Gen Bajwa after being assured by the government that Parliament will pass legislation on the extension/reappointment of an army chief within six months.
The government after initial hesitation got pressurized enough to secure the support of the main Opposition parties and introduced three bills in the National Assembly to extend the retirement age from 60 to 64 years for the chiefs of army, navy and air force, and the chairman of the joint chief of staff committee.
The Chief of Army Staff is now going to retire in Nov 22. In case General Bajwa has decided to retire then it Imran Khan will heave a big sigh of relief. However if the Army has decided to go in for a extension of the current Chief, then the Government if the day will have no options or a very few but dangerous ones left.
Presently speaking about the rumours of a possible deal between the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the military to topple his government, Khan said he personally was not under any kind of pressure.
“The current year has just started and November is far away. Then why there is worry about extension in the tenure of the army chief,” the prime minister said.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has said he has not yet thought about an extension to Chief of the Army Staff Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa’s tenure as there is still time for his term to end, according to a media report on Friday. Talking about the contentious issue of the extension in Bajwa’s tenure, Prime Minister Khan said that he enjoyed an unprecedented relationship with the military leadership, the Dawn newspaper reported.
“The current year has just started and November is far away. Then why there is worry about extension in the tenure of the army chief,” the prime minister was quoted as saying in the report.
Khan said that he had so far not thought about extension in the tenure of COAS Bajwa. This is probably a dubious statement coming out of Imran Khan. The 61-year-old will serve the post of Army chief till November 28, 2022.
The cricketer-turned-politician said that he enjoyed the support of allies and expressed confidence that his government would complete its mandated five years till 2023.
