Major parties developing consensus on merit in next COAS appointment
Three major political parties of the country – PTI, PMLN and PPP – are building their political narratives around the appointment of the next chief of army staff and the leaders of both the parties are accusing each other of violating the merit policy.
Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa is set to retire on November 29 and the PML-N — the major stakeholder in the ruling coalition — has been mulling options to appoint the new officer as Gen Bajwa’s successor.
Under the move, both Houses of the Parliament had voted to pass three bills that set a higher retirement age for the chiefs of the Pakistani army, navy and air force, allowing the prime minister to extend their terms at his discretion.
While PML-N’s supremo Nawaz Sharif held another quiet meeting with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in London to discuss the appointment of next army chief, the PTI, PML-N and PPP leaders accused each other for violating the merit policy in this regard.
It was PTI chief Imran Khan who on Friday accused the PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif an absconder, of violating the merit-policy in appointment of the next army chief. The next army chief should be appointed on merit …. but the incumbent coalition government would violate merit as the [PML-N supremo] Nawaz Sharif would not let it happen because he wants to control the institutions to save his looted wealth,” said Khan in his speech made to the participants of the long march broadcast through a video link in Gujrat.
