Under the amended Army Act, the Army Chief can continue till he is 64 years old. Predictably, this led to questions about a new ‘patch up’ deal to restore the ‘same page’ between the Army and its ‘hybrid’ protégé, through another extension to Gen Bajwa in November 2022. The Opposition is now left with the option of challenging the ‘illegal and unconstitutional bulldozing’ of these legislations in courts. Legislators ruefully acknowledged having ‘been brought’ to the joint session, familiarly receiving telephone calls from the ISI, urging them to attend. However, this optimism proved short-lived as the joint session was held on 17 November, comfortably passing 33 bills including controversial ones introducing electronic voting machines and empowering overseas Pakistanis to vote. Before tabling a possible vote of no confidence against the PTI government, they toyed with the idea of a ‘get Sanjrani’ operation, to remove the Senate Chairman first. The Opposition’s Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) announced a revised schedule of public rallies in Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar and Lahore, culminating in a ‘Long March’ to Islamabad, to protest against high inflation and continued mismanagement of the economy by the Imran Khan administration. Governor Mohd Sarwar joined the chorus of criticism.
The Chaudhrys of Gujrat, Pervez Elahi and Shujaat Hussain, criticised the PTI for ill-treating their Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) workers in Punjab. The prime minister’s appearance proved to be more of a distraction.Īfter two bills could not be passed in the National Assembly and a planned joint session of Parliament had to be deferred on 11 November, for lack of support from the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)’s allies, Opposition parties appeared buoyant about the military establishment’s new-found impartiality in domestic politics. Angry judges asked why no FIRs were filed against those at the helm, including then army chief Gen Raheel Sharif and DG, ISI, Lt Gen Zaheer ul Islam. The higher judiciary too flexed muscle, urging the prime minister to appear in the Supreme Court while petitions of aggrieved parents of the Army Public School, Peshawar, the calamity of December, 2014 were being heard. TLP’s name has been taken off the terrorist parties’ list under schedules of the Anti-Terrorism Act and its leader, Saad Rizvi was released by courts just before the death anniversary of its founder, Khadim Rizvi. The accord with the Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TLP), Pakistan, to call off its agitation was worked out under the military establishment’s initiative, embarrassing the prime minister, who had talked tough about enforcing the writ of the State. This rumour did not gather much traction, no doubt because the collegiate group of senior Generals remained steadfast in support of the incumbent chief.
The name of Lt Gen Muhd Abdul Aziz, IV Corps commander, Lahore, senior-most among Lieutenant General, floated briefly for Army Chief, in case Imran took the drastic step of sacking Bajwa prematurely. In sharp contrast, there was complete silence on Anjum’s advent.Īll manner of speculation surfaced in the interregnum, about the rupture in civil-military relations and options for change being considered at either end. Farewell calls of Lt Gen Faiz Hameed on the president, prime minister and foreign minister were unusually played up in the media before his departure to the XI Corps assignment in Peshawar. The takeover by Lt Gen Nadeem Ahmed Anjum as Director-General, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), took place eventually on 20 November, bringing to a close the unseemly spat that occurred between Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa and Prime Minister Imran Khan over the held-up 6 October chain of Lieutenant Generals’ transfers.