Aamir Qureshi—AFP
Pakistan’s most painful governance trait is its presumption that if someone wants to stay in office beyond the prescribed time, he will be “grateful” if he is made to stay on. The practice of extending tenures, particularly for the office of the Army chief, has especially caused much political pain to the country’s system of governance. The “extended” chief is supposed to back the obliging government in whatever it does, necessitating some kind of “coercion” that only the Army can provide.
These days, amidst the military’s claims of becoming ‘apolitical,’ both the incumbent government and ousted prime minister Imran Khan have shown rare unity in saying the legislation introduced under the PTI to extend the Army chief’s tenure should be revoked. Will anyone believe that this statement will put an end to the “extensions” that have undermined politics in Pakistan? Needless to say, no one will.
In 2019, the Khan government cited a worsening national security situation with old rival India as justification for the extension for Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa at the end of his three-year term. It should have been a routine matter but there was a reaction from the Supreme Court, which struck it down, ordering the government and the Army to produce “legal provisions and arguments for the reappointment.” As a result, Parliament approved in January 2020 legislation allowing for the extension to the tenure of an Army chief for three years, ending a political stand-off that had threatened to pit the judiciary against the powerful military.
The PMLN, having suffered the brunt of the excesses of extended tenures, is now backing off from its support of the legislation. Its leaders have begun referring to the procedure for the appointment of the chief justice of Pakistan, where the senior-most judge is automatically appointed as the chief justice, and proposing a similar formula for the selection of the Army chief. This, however, does not mean the door is closed forever. One need only look to PTI chief Imran Khan, who was proposing a second extension for Gen. Bajwa until a newly elected government could appoint his successor as recently as September, despite today describing the first extension granted by his government a “great mistake.
The world knows that Pakistani politics is corrupt and its leaders are often hauled up for wrongdoing after getting out of power, but there is a growing awareness that Army chiefs too “partake” by pretending to “honestly” shore up political leaders threatened by collapse. What boggles the mind is that the “protectors” are often found queering the pitch for the leaders who “extend” them. The practice has not done any good for the country so far, and ending it can not only strengthen civilian supremacy, but also discourage future “kingmakers” from exceeding their constitutional mandate.