NA, Senate pass bills seeking increase in services chiefs’ tenure, SC judges’ strength

The National Assembly (NA) and the Senate passed on Monday the bills seeking extension of the terms of armed services chiefs and an increase in the number of Supreme Court judges, Aaj News reported.

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif tabled the bill in the NA that aimed to extend the tenure of the Chief of the Army Staff, Chief of the Naval Staff, and Chief of the Air Staff from three to five years.

Earlier, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar presented a separate bill in the lower house that proposed increasing the number of judges up to 34.

President Asif Ali Zardari gives assent to 26th Constitutional Amendment

“This amendment will increase the number of judges in the Supreme Court up to 34, so that the backlog of cases can be cleared, and that after the 26th amendment, we can have judges to form the constitutional benches,” Tarar said.

“Our bar lobbies and the SCBA (Supreme Court Bar Association) have been recommending this for a while now so that the four-bar court registries in Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar, and Lahore can relieve their thousands of pending cases,” he added.

Amid protests by the opposition, the government managed to get six bills passed: the Supreme Court Number of Judges (Amendment) Bill, 2024, Supreme Court Practice and Procedure (Amendment) Bill, 2024, Islamabad High Court (Amendment) bill, 2024, Pakistan Army (Amendment) Bill, 2024, Pakistan Air Force (Amendment) Bill, 2024, and Pakistan Navy (Amendment) Bill, 2024.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) strongly opposed the bills, terming the development “an attack on democracy” in Pakistan.

“It is neither good for the country nor for the armed forces,” Opposition Leader Omar Ayub said.

Khan’s party’s lawmakers opposed the bill during the sessions and some tore apart copies of it.

“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,” Information Minister Attaullah Tarar told Geo New TV. “It will help bring stability and continuity of policies within institutions.”

The service tenure will start from the day of the appointment of the chiefs, Asif, the defence minister, told Geo TV.

Under the new law, General Munir, who took office in November 2022 with a timeline to retire in 2025, will serve until 2027 irrespective of a retirement age of 64 for a general.