Pakistan Army (Amendment) Act, 2020 | |
---|---|
Parliament of Pakistan | |
Citation | |
Passed by | Senate of Pakistan |
Passed | 7 January 2020 |
Introduced by | Senator Walid Iqbal [1] |
Pakistan Army (Amendment) Act, 2020 is a law that amends the Pakistan Army Act, 1952. It provides a measure to President of Pakistan acting on advice of Prime Minister of Pakistan to extend the tenure of Chief of Army Staff (COAS) by three years. The amendment also bars the act of the extension of tenure from being challenged in any court. [2] The Act sets an upper age limit of 64 years for COAS. [3]
On 19 August 2019, Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan announced that he had extended the tenure of Chief of Army Staff, Qamar Javed Bajwa for another three years. His original term was supposed to end on 29 November 2019, on which date Bajwa would have been retired sans this extension. [4]
Soon after the extension announcement, a petition was filed with the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) requesting the court to look into the matter as the petitioner believed that the Government of Pakistan did not follow proper procedures outlined in law and the Constitution of Pakistan. [4]
On 28 November 2019, Just one day before Bajwa's potential retirement, a three-member Supreme Court bench, headed by then Chief Justice of Pakistan, Asif Saeed Khosa with justices Mansoor Ali Shah and Mazhar Alam Miankhel, issued a short order nullifying the government's extension notification while temporarily extending Bajwa's tenure for six months. The court ordered the government to put the matter of extension into the law in under six months sans which Bajwa would stand retired as of 29 November 2019. This was first time in the history of Pakistan that a court questioned the extension of an Army Chief. On 16 December 2019, the court issued a detailed judgement. [4]
On 26 December 2019, the Government of Pakistan filed a review petition in the Supreme Court against the 16 December judgement and requested composition of a larger bench to hear the review petition. This gave an indication that the government might not be looking into complying with the original order until the review petition was decided. [4]
The Supreme Court of India is the supreme judicial authority and the highest court of the Republic of India. It is the final court of appeal for all civil and criminal cases in India. It also has the power of judicial review. The Supreme Court, which consists of the Chief Justice of India and a maximum of fellow 33 judges, has extensive powers in the form of original, appellate and advisory jurisdictions.
The Supreme Court of Pakistan is the apex court in the judicial hierarchy of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
Nasim Hasan Shah was a Pakistani jurist and served as Chief Justice of Pakistan. He is best known for his role in the verdict against Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the first democratically elected Prime Minister of Pakistan, which resulted in the death penalty.
The Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) is a statutory office held by the professional head of the Indian Army (IA), the land forces branch of the Indian Armed Forces. Customarily held by a four-star general officer, the COAS is the senior-most operational officer of the IA, tasked with the roles of overseeing the overall functioning of the force during peace and wartime, committing to the preparation and maintenance of the force's operational effectiveness and defending the nation's territorial integrity and sovereignty.
The 1999 military takeover in Pakistan was a bloodless coup d'état initiated by the military staff at the Joint Staff HQ working under the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee and Chief of Army Staff General Pervez Musharraf. The instigators seized control of the civilian government of the popularly elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on 12 October 1999. On 14 October, General Musharraf, acting as the country's Chief Executive, issued a controversial provisional order that suspended the Constitution of Pakistan.
The judiciary of Pakistan is the national system of courts that maintains the law and order in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Pakistan uses a common law system, which was introduced during the colonial era, influenced by local medieval judicial systems based on religious and cultural practices. The Constitution of Pakistan lays down the fundamentals and working of the Pakistani judiciary.
Javed Iqbal ; is the retired chairman of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) of Pakistan, in office from 11 October 2017 to 3 June 2022. He is also a retired Senior Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
Mohammad Farogh Naseem is a Pakistani politician and barrister who served as the Federal Minister of Law and Justice until 2 April 2022. He is serving as member of the Senate of Pakistan. He has previously served as Advocate General of Sindh.
Nasirul Mulk is a Pakistani jurist and politician who served as the seventh caretaker prime minister of Pakistan in 2018, and previously also served as the 22nd chief justice of Pakistan from 2014 to 2015. A jurist by profession, he was nominated as Chief Justice by the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. On 6 July 2014, his appointment as CJP was confirmed by President Mamnoon Hussain. He also previously served as the country's acting Chief Election Commissioner, from 30 November 2013 to 6 July 2014.
Qazi Faez Isa is a Pakistani jurist who served as the 29th Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) from 17 September 2023 to 25 October 2024. He was appointed as a justice of the Supreme Court in 2014, having previously served as the chief justice of Balochistan High Court from 2009 to 2014.
Ranjan Gogoi is an Indian former advocate and judge who served as the 46th Chief Justice of India from 2018 to 2019, having previously served as a Judge of the Supreme Court of India from 2012 to 2018. He is currently a Member of the Rajya Sabha, having been nominated by President Ram Nath Kovind on 16 March 2020. Gogoi served as a judge in the Gauhati High Court from 2001 to 2010, and then was transferred as a judge to the Punjab and Haryana High Court from 2010 to 2011 where he later was the Chief Justice from 2011 to 2012. He is also a member of the Committee on External Affairs in the Rajya Sabha.
The History of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, organised by the Chief Justice of Pakistan, follows from its constitutional establishment in 1947 till its recent events. The Supreme Court of Pakistan is the highest appellate court of the country and court of last resort— the final arbiter of the law and the Constitution.
Syed Mansoor Ali Shah is a Pakistani jurist who is serving as a Judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. He formerly served as the 45th Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court.
Qamar Javed Bajwa is a retired Pakistani army general who served as the tenth chief of the army staff of Pakistan from 29 November 2016 to 29 November 2022. In 2018 he was ranked 68th in the Forbes list of the World's Most Powerful People.
Asif Saeed Khan Khosa is a Pakistani jurist who served as the 26th Chief Justice of Pakistan from 18 January 2019 to 20 December 2019. He joined the Supreme Court as a judge on 18 February 2010 and prior to that served as judge of the Lahore High Court.
The Supreme Court of Azad Jammu and Kashmir is the highest court of appeal in Azad Jammu and Kashmir. It consists of a Chief Justice and two other Judges.
Faiz HameedHI(M) is a retired three-star general of the Pakistan Army, awaiting court martial. Faiz was the country's top Spy-master and served as the 29th Director General of the ISI from 2019 to 2022. He was commissioned in the Baloch Regiment having served as GOC 16th Infantry Division Pano Akil. He last served as Commander of the XXXI Corps before taking premature retirement on 10 December 2022.
The Federation of Pakistan v. General (R) Pervez Musharraf, informally known as the Musharraf high treason case, was a court case, in which General Pervez Musharraf who acted in the capacity as chief of army staff, tried for high treason stemming from his imposing of unconstitutional state of emergency on 3 November 2007. In this act, Gen. Musharraf, who was also elected as President of Pakistan, subverted and suspended the writ of the Constitution of Pakistan, dismissing the fifteen justices of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and the fifty-six judges of the provincial High Courts while issuing arrest orders to Chief Justice of Pakistan.
General ; Urdu: جنرل; abbreviated as GEN) is a four-star general officer rank of the Pakistan Army, officially used by the government of Pakistan to denote a supreme leader of the army. It is given to an army general officer upon promotion or possibly a position advancement with a basic pay scale of 22 (BPS-22). It is the highest rank in the armed services, immediately ranks above three-star lieutenant general and below five-star field marshal. Since it is denoted by a four-star rank, it is equivalent to the rank of admiral and air chief marshal. The Pakistan army is led by a senior four-star general as Chief of Army Staff (COAS). The army chief also serves as a senior member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (JCSC). A new Chief of Army Staff is not always the most senior of the eligible generals; indeed, as of 2016, the new COAS has been the most senior candidate only four of fourteen times. Army general is a powerful rank in the country designed to command security affairs with military leadership privileges.
Jawwad S. Khawaja v. Federation of Pakistan, PLD 2024 SC 337, is a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in which it was held that the Constitution of Pakistan does not allow for the court-martial of civilians.