PML-N to support Army Act Amendment Bill

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz has hinted at voting in favour of amendments made to the Army Act by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government.

Asif Kirmani, a close confidant of PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, told SAMAA TV on Thursday that his party’s members were in contact with the government and they expected the matters to move into the right direction.

“There was a parliamentary party meeting presided over by Khawaja Asif… Raja Zafarul Haq was also there. They told us that they were in contact with members of the government and God willing, things will improve,” Kirmani said.

The Army Act Amendment Bill, approved by the federal cabinet on Wednesday, propose to extend the retirement age of services chiefs to 64 years, according to Federal Minister Fawad Chaudhry.

The cabinet had approved amendments in Section 172 of the Army Act and Article 155 of the Services Rules, Defence Minister Pervez Khattak.

The bill will be tabled before in the parliament on Friday, December 3.

In the past few years, the Nawaz-led PML-N has been at loggerheads with the country’s security establishment. The former prime minister even accused a senior military official of rigging last year’s elections in an attempt to facilitate Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party.

The PML-N used to believe that the establishment was behind its downfall  and Nawaz’s disqualification and conviction in corruption cases.

Nawaz’s younger brother Shehbaz Sharif, however, has always been in favour of having good ties with the establishment. He is now the president of the PML-N after his brother was barred from holding any party position.

Senator Mushahidullah Khan, a firebrand PML-N leader, told SAMAA TV the PTI government had made the army controversial in the past seven or eight months. The PML-N senator had been removed as a minister in 2015 after accusing the then ISI DG Lt Gen (retired) Zaheerul Islam for attempting to overthrow the PML-N government in an interview.

“They (government) issued wrong notifications,” Khan said. “They couldn’t even issue [a] notification.”

On November 28, the Supreme Court had allowed the government to grant Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa an extension for six months.

It had asked the attorney general of Pakistan to amend laws within six months if the government wanted to give three-year extension to the army chief.

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Article source: https://www.samaa.tv/latest-news/2020/01/nawaz-sharifs-pml-n-hints-at-supporting-governments-army-act-bill/