Senate to vote on services chiefs’ tenure bills today

ISLAMABAD: The Senate of Pakistan will vote on three bills related to the tenure of the three services chiefs today (Wednesday), ARY News reported.

Defence Minister Pervez Khattak will present the bills in the upper house. The bills are Pakistan Army (Amendment) bill, 2020, Pakistan Air Force (Amendment) bill, 2020 and Pakistan Navy (Amendment) bill, 2020.

Yesterday, National Assembly (NA) had unanimously passed Army three Amendment Bills, pertaining to tenure of the services chiefs.

The National Assembly met with Speaker Asad Qaiser in the chair. Prime Minister Imran Khan also attended the all-important session.

The bills were passed by the lawmakers clause by clause.

The Pakistan People’s Party on the request of government, had withdrawn their proposed amendments in the act.

“After being approached by a government delegation and consulting with the rest of the opposition, the party decided to withdraw the recommendations”, PPP’s Naveed Qamar said in the NA.

The National Assembly Standing Committee on Defence had approved the Army Act Amendment Bill on Monday. The committee had to be summoned again after it was established that the rules and regulations of parliament were violated in the January 3 session of the committee.

It may be noted that the amendments were made in line with the directions of the Supreme Court’s verdict.