The federal government has proposed amending the decades-old Pakistan Army Act (PAA), 1952, in order to grant authoritative powers to the Prime Minister (PM) to extend the tenure of any officer through a notification.
The proposed legislation is expected to be brought before parliament if the Cabinet Committee for Disposal of Legislative Cases (CCLC) approves a summary of changes, which was authorized by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) last month.
In the proposed amendment to Section 176 of the PAA, the word ‘retention’ will be added after ‘reappointment,’ in the present Act, along with the word ‘resignation’ after the word ‘release.’
It is worth noting that retaining an army officer currently entails a complex constitutional process. Following the amendment, PM will simply issue a notification regarding the officer’s tenure extension.
Pakistani newspaper, Dawn, tried to contact Defence Minister, Khawaja Asif, Information Minister, Marriyum Aurangzeb, and other cabinet members for comment, but none of them answered.
A lawyer with expertise in military-related cases claimed that the PM will be able to retain any army officer without defining the length of the extension following the approval of the amendment.
Via Dawn
