Government has no intention to remove Kayani, Pasha: AGP: Supreme Court seeks written pledge

The Supreme Court on Friday issued directives to the government to submit a written pledge within two weeks that it had no intention to sack the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and Director General Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha.
A three-member bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez issued the directions after Attorney General for Pakistan Maulvi Anwar-ul-Haq, who appeared on notice, apprised the court that the government had no intention to remove the COAS and the Director General ISI and they would complete their tenure.
The AGP submitted that the petition against any possible move to sack the military and intelligence leadership was based on assumptions and hypotheses. The Chief Justice observed that the situation should move towards betterment. "It would be better if the government submits its stance in writing," the CJP said and asked the AGP to take formal instructions from the government and submit before the court its reply in writing over the issue within a fortnight. "We want to resolve issues as it would be better in the interest of the country as well as the nation," the Chief Justice observed, adding that it was our own issue.
The petition seeking apex court's intervention to block any attempts by the government to sack the military and intelligence leadership was filed by F.K Butt advocate a few weeks ago when a tussle between the civilian government and the military leadership over the 'memo' controversy had already led to the sacking of Defence Secretary Lieutenant General Khalid Naeem Lodhi (Retd), triggering speculations that the government contemplating initiating a similar action against the army and the intelligence chiefs.