President signs services chiefs’ tenure amendment bills

President Arif Alvi has signed the services chiefs’ tenure amendment bills to make the three bills; the Pakistan Army (Amendment) Act, 2020, the Pakistan Air Force (Amendment) Act, 2020 and the Pakistan Navy (Amendment) Act, 2020 into law.

The National Assembly and Senate Standing Committees on Defence have already passed the three bills earlier.

Senate approved the amendment in the bill on Wednesday and approved the extensions of the chief of Army Staff, Chief of Air staff, chief of naval staff and the Chairman of the Joint session of Staff Committee.

The senate lasted for 20 minutes. The committee was chaired by Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani.

Govt lauds opposition’s role in legislation process

Although there were some minor protests in the committee, major political parties voted in the favor.

The bills are Pakistan Army (Amendment) Bill, 2020, Pakistan Air Force (Amendment) Bill, 2020 and Pakistan Navy (Amendment) Bill, 2020.

On Tuesday, the NA gave its approval to the three bills formalizing the length of tenure of the three services chiefs.

However, some opposition lawmakers, including MNAs from the Jamaat-e-Islami, the Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazl and representatives from erstwhile Fata walked out in protest over the bills.

They had earlier announced they would not be supporting the bills on principle.

The bills will become law once Senate forwards them to the president and he signs off on them.

Yesterday, the House passed a bill regarding amendments to Pakistan Air Force Act 1953 and Pakistan Navy Ordinance 1961.

The session of the NA held with Speaker Asad Qaiser in the National Assembly.

Prime Minister Imran Khan also attended the session.

The bill supported by the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the main Opposition Parties Pakistan Muslim

League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).