The Supreme Court has resumed it’s hearing challenging the extension of Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Bajwa today. Here are five key takeaways from the ongoing hearing.
A three member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa and consisting of Justice Mazhar Alam and Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah is hearing the challenging of the extension today. Here are the highlights so far:
The Cabinet ‘doesn’t accept’ it’s mistakes in ordering the extension
When the Chief Justice asked the Attorney General if they had accepted the points raised by the court yesterday. The Attorney General then responded that they had not accepted the mistakes. The Chief Justice said ‘this is not a suo moto case, the media did not understand it correctly’.
Some ministers still haven’t responded to the extension notification
The Chief Justice asked the Attorney General to present the summary approved by the federal cabinet in it’s meeting yesterday. To this, the Attorney General replied, ‘I said yesterday as well that we are waiting for some ministers to respond on the extension notification’.
The Chief Justice then asked if they should assume that no answer means yes to which the Attorney General responded that according to the law that is correct.
They acknowledged that the PM had passed the order which is not allowed under the constitution
During today’s hearing, the court acknowledged that the Prime Minister himself had passed the order reappointing the current COAS for a second term. However, in the Pakistani constitution it is only the President who has the power to do this.
The court made it clear that the COAS’s extension will remain suspended
The court made the army chief a respondent to the petition and maintained that the operation of the notification for General Bajwa’s extension will remain suspended
The court found flaws in the notification for extension
Upon examining the process, the court found peculiarities in the case. For instance, after the approval of the cabinet in the re-appointment of the COAS, the matter never went to the Prime Minister or President for a fresh approval.
The hearing is still ongoing.
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