The prolonged discussions, speculations, and deadlock between the government and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on the appointment of new Chief of Army Staff (COAS) have come to their end as the new COAS has been appointed by the mutual consent of the government and the President Arif Alvi. This was very important appointment as the whole politics of the country was revolving around it. When former Prime Minister and Chairman PTI, Imran Khan was in the power then he was of the view of appointing the person of his own choice on this seat. But, he was ousted before this important appointment. Resultantly, he could not maintain his influence on the seat and the current government of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) has succeeded in doing this appointment.
All eyes remained on screens on Thursday as the day was very important. With every passing minute the situation was changing. Government miss handled the summary which it sent to the president for approval. Instead of keeping this summary secret the government public the names which created a new situation in the country where the discussion unfolded that whether the President Arif Alvi would sign the summary or not. As per the law the President is not authorized to reject the summary sent by the Prime Minister. Law only allows President to send back the summary and delay the matter for maximum 25 days. If the president sends back the summary then the government sends the summary again and at that point there is no authority with President through which he can reject that and at the end summary gets accepted. The discussion remained at this point, but the President Arif Alvi sensibly behaved and conducted a discussion with Imran Khan after which he approved the summary. President Arif Alvi has signed summary forwarded by PM Shehbaz Sharif on the appointment of new army chief General Asim Munir and Chairman Joint Chief of Staff Committee (CJCSC) General Sahir Shamshad. Lt General Asim Munir is the senior most officer after outgoing Army Chief Qamar Javed Bajwa and is currently serving as Quartermaster General in the Pakistan Army. Lt-Gen Munir entered the service via the Officers Training School (OTS) programme in Mangla and was commissioned into the 23rd Battalion of the Frontier Force Regiment. Lt-Gen Munir commanded troops in the Force Command Northern Areas as a brigadier under Gen Bajwa, who was then Commander X Corps. He was appointed DG of the Military Intelligence in early 2017 and then ISI Director General in October 2018.
New appointments have been made while following the merit. New COAS was most senior candidate for this point. But, the problem was that he was supposed to be retired on November 27, two days before the appointment of new COAS. However, the Federal Government has retained Lt General Asim Munir under relevant amended rules. Gen Munir was scheduled to retire on November 27. He had submitted his retirement application to the defence ministry. However, the defence ministry did not accept the request for retirement and decided to retain Gen Munir. Earlier, government decided to appoint Lieutenant General Asim Munir as new Chief of Army Staff (COAS).
Merit based new appointments on these high profile designations are highly laudable. These appointments have put an end to the prolonged deadlock existing in the country. The political instability will also come to end soon as the PDM government has achieved what he had wanted to. So, there are chances that the government would announce the date for the general elections soon to revive the political stability in the country.
Comments are closed.